AWARD-WINNING hotelier Christopher Carss has realised an ambition by taking sole charge of the Rothay Garden Hotel at Grasmere.

Mr Carss has managed the 25-bedroom hotel a former winner of Cumbria Tourist Board's Hotel of the Year award for the past 12 years.

He bought the majority shareholding of the hotel from his former partners.

"This has got to be one of the most satisfying moments of my career," said Mr Carss, who started out in the hotel industry 29 years ago as a waiter at the Borrowdale Hotel, Keswick.

"I can now continue to develop the business at the hotel to cater for our guests, many of whom have been coming to the hotel since the time I first arrived here."

May 1, 2003 14:00