Unity Trust Bank has invested £750,000 in Raymond Kelly, owner of Lomond Pharmacy, to update 19th century Liquorstane Building in Fife, Falkland, into a modern-day pharmacy.

Read more: Council planning nightmare over flashing signs leaves pharmacist with £6k loss

The pharmacy is located three miles away from its nearest GP surgery and because the area is a magnet for tourists wanting to explore the scenery of popular tv series Outlander, Lomond Pharmacy delivers much-needed frontline services for visitors as well as surrounding villages.

 

A high local demand

 

Kelly, who was named Scottish Pharmacist of the Year as a manager at Rowlands Group before opening his own pharmacies in Falkland, Kinglassie and Charlston, said his original Falkland “premises was in converted stables”, which he could not “expand to provide the services the area needs” due to planning restrictions.

Read more: Independent buyers snap up six southeast pharmacies

According to Kelly, there are 1,100 residents, many aged over 75, and dozens of near-by farms and hamlets. The “demand for pharmacy services is high” and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kelly’s team “didn’t have a day off in two years”.

 

‘That felt like vandalism’

 

“We needed bigger premises and Liquorstane Building had been vacant for years,” said Kelly, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art.

“It has an interesting history - being a former temperance hotel and masonic lodge - and my vision was to create a pharmacy on the ground floor with a larger dispensary area and consulting rooms, and create holiday let apartments on the top floor as we get tourists from all over the world, especially as Outlander was filmed here, ” he explained.

Read more: Number of community pharmacists shoots up 19% in 5 years, data reveals

The Liquorstane Building was “restored very carefully” because although it could have been “flattened” and “rebuilt with breeze blocks”, that “felt like vandalism”, he said.

Alongside his business partner, Audrey McAnaw, three dispensers and two drivers, Lomond Pharmacy offers services ranging from flu vaccinations to ear wax removal and provides treatment for ailments common in the area, including insect bites.

 

‘A positive difference’

 

Relationship manager at Unity Trust Bank, Scott Hutchinson, said the bank only lends to “organisations that make a positive difference in local communities”, and that it is “delighted to support” Lomond Pharmacy’s “relocation and expansion”.

Read more: Boots pharmacy reopens after Volkswagen crashed into storefront

“Many rural communities in North East Fife are benefitting from the additional services Kelly is providing,” said Hutchinson, “and the historic character of a much-loved building has also been preserved.”

Kelly is set to qualify as an independent prescriber (IP) in the spring next year and is also planning to install a new public defibrillator outside Lomond Pharmacy, after the one he gifted the village at his previous premises has been called into use several times.