PLANS to demolish a historic Dumbarton hotel have sparked a furious response from the public.

Gateside Design has lodged an application with West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) seeking permission to demolish the Dumbuck House Hotel on Glasgow Road.

The application, which is awaiting a decision from council officials, was lodged with the local authority on January 20.

No supporting documents are available with the notice of application on the WDC website.

One Dumbarton resident, Hannah Munro, said in a social media post: "I am very sad to see that WDC Planning has received a 'proposal' to demolish the Dumbuck Hotel .

"Hopefully there will be enough local concern that this will be refused,and perhaps the Dunfermline based owners made to put it up for sale if they don't want it. 

"Why do they come here to try demolish our local buildings?"

Previously the Reporter told how in March 2021 permission was sought to install hot tubs at the hotel which would have seen 11 of the current bedrooms sacrificed.

Devilla Property Services wanted to to carry out alterations to the B-listed building and build three two-storey extensions to provide four self-contained holiday let units as well as accommodation for the hotel’s manager.

However, that application was withdrawn in December of the same year.

According to a social media post by WDC's arts and heritage team in 2021, the hotel was originally built for Colonel Andrew Geils, and is thought to have first opened between 1798 and 1824.

In 1923, engineering firm Babcock and Wilcox, which had a plant on the south-eastern edge of Dumbarton, close to the hotel, bought the building and it was remodelled. The land around it was cleared including an orchard and Dumbuck House was used for staff functions and partly as a hotel.

Babcock and Wilcox left the building in 1936.

The hotel has been generally used for functions and as a hotel since.

Then in 2015 their honeymoon suite was named after a good Samaritan who devoted years of her life to making free wedding cakes and dresses for young sweethearts before the groom rushed to the battlefield, often never to return.

Agnes 'Nana' Thompson helped countless couples marry in haste during World War II and wouldn't accept any payment for it.

The demolition can be viewed by searching west-dunbarton.gov.uk for the planning reference code BW/23/024.