Richard Forrester Owned the Hotel 1968-1976
Statement provided by Sara Annau
“My father Richard Forrester was proprietor of the hotel from 1968 until 1976 (I think), when ill health forced him to retire. He had previously worked for various prestigious hotel groups, and prior to purchasing the WIH was overseas manager for what was then Trust Houses Forte (prior to name change)and incidentally took a young Rocco Forte under his wing and trained him. My mother wasn’t happy that he was away from home so much, so he decided to go it alone.
My dad bought the hotel from a Mr MacLean, after visiting with my mother and us 3 daughters in tow, in the autumn of 1968, but I don’t remember much about Mr MacLean other than he drove a Jensen Interceptor, which was pretty cool to an 11 year old me. We moved from Surrey around Xmas time that year. Culture shock! We were amongst the first ‘incomers’ to Tobermory which is much more cosmopolitan now. There was only one tv channel (BBC).
One of the first things my dad did that winter - the hotel was seasonal in those days, open Easter-October only- was to redecorate all the rooms and lay new carpets EVERYWHERE. I remember that he said there was over 3.5 miles of carpet. This included in the Annex, which is now the Park Hotel. He also refitted the kitchens, and replaced all the cutlery and flatware. One of my sisters is still using the Viners ‘Studio’ cutlery that he bought then, and it is back in fashion as it is very mid century modern! He also had uniforms made for staff in Black Watch tartan.
As well as the annex, the golf course was also owned by the hotel, along with several fields that are now built up with houses. We stayed in the hotel that winter, but it was very cold and inconvenient to family life, and from the following year we lived in Edinburgh during closed season, and visited Tobermory as necessary.”
The Buying of the Hotel
“I think my dad paid £45k for the hotel in 1968 … When we visited in 2019 (not 2018 according to photo log) I smiled when I saw the glass panel in the conservatory and graphic on the menu. I think that this has been based on the letterhead that my dad had designed. As you can see, it went a bit further down into the bay, and includes the funnels of the twin funnel steam ship that came regularly into Tobermory, packed with tourists.”
The Skull
“Do you know the story of the Tobermory skull? The hotel had a major role in that. When we moved to the hotel it was in the stock cupboard in what was then the cocktail bar (I think this might be a private dining room now- to the left at bottom of stairs?). The skull was brought up from the bay by a navy frogman called Lionel Crabb, who later disappeared on a dive, and his headless body was found some time later. Study of the skull suggested that it was a black female, possibly the Florencia’s captains err … companion. Probably pure conjecture! I don’t know how the skull came to be at the hotel, but we were told it was put in the stock cupboard after a barman knocked it off a shelf and cracked it. He came off his motorbike that evening and fractured his skull. But my dad thought that was daft, and that it would be good to hang it up in the bar. He drilled a hole in it, and suffered a minor stroke that night, along with the man who held it while he did the drilling.”
Following is an except from the Western Isles Hotel Records:
‘In 1952, a team of Royal Navy divers came to the Sound of Mull in a bid to find the wreck of the Florencia, the pay-ship of the Spanish Armada, which allegedly sank there in 1588, loaded with riches. They didn't find the galleon (no surprise there), but they did find a human skull.
A senior diver brought it ashore and after many years it came into the possession of Richard Forrester, who then owned the Western Isles Hotel. In 1969 he decided to mount the skull on the wall of the public bar. As he drilled a hole in the skull to attach it to the wall, he broke a couple of pieces off. He thought nothing of it, but soon after he began to suffer terrible migraine headaches which became so severe he was eventually forced to sell the hotel. Before he sold up, something else happened.
His wife took down the skull to dust it one day and not long after, was in a bad car accident. She was lucky to escape with a fractured skull. Just bad luck or coincidence, you might suggest. But the man who first brought the skull ashore was Commander Buster Crabbe, whose headless corpse was found in May 1956 after a secret mission to spy on a Russian ship berthed in Portsmouth Harbour.
In the Western Isles Hotel, others began to wonder if the skull had some secret power, for staff who touched it had freak accidents. A maid had a window drop out of its frame on to her and a porter fractured his skull in a motorbike accident.
When Phil Bird bought the hotel in 1984, no one dared to touch the skull for fear of a freak injury befalling them. But Phil wasn't concerned with bad luck, he simply thought that the sanctity of the human body deserved a better end. He took the skull from the wall of the bar, carried it to the water's edge, and placed it in the Sound of Mull where he felt it belonged. It is now back with a blessing at the bottom of the bay.’
