In 1968 I and my partners, acquired control of The Cally Palace Hotel in Gatehouse of Fleet, a beautiful stately home with 50 bedrooms earning only small profits.
We invested in the property, upgraded the existing house, added a 30 bedroomed luxury wing, built a swimming pool and converted cottages in the grounds into guest accommodation, all aimed at attracting the wealthy north of England market in Yorkshire and Lancashire.  With a great PR team, we gained huge publicity for the newly renovated hotel and its restaurant. We introduced event weekends – a novel idea at the time – with light, classical music, opera singers, jazz groups and literary salons. The beautiful lake in the grounds was cleaned out and stocked with 5,000 fish, ensuring our aspiring fisherman guests could nearly all be successful and have their catch prepared by our chef for dinner in the evening, another new idea in the Seventies. 
After a successful five years we were able to sell the hotel at an excellent profit.