The owner of the former Castletown Golf Links Hotel says he wants to submit plans this year for the redevelopment of the site as a 5* luxury hotel.

Philip Vermuelen, managing director of Langness Golf Course Ltd, said: ‘The birdlife, the environment, the golf course, the history, the location, it’s a diamond - and it’s a privilege to polish this diamond.’

He was speaking as an emergency demolition of the old hotel got underway, work deemed necessary as the building is now thought to be too dangerous to stay standing.

A ceiling and floor at the rear have collapsed and there have been issues with intruders breaking into the building, causing further damage and putting themselves at risk.

Mr Vermeulen said: ‘We’ve got a very, very dangerous building. It’s falling apart. We’ve had many intruders - they’ve taken out windows, used fire extinguishers to knock down the staircases. I’ve been trying to get it demolished since 2015.’

He said he expects a planning application to be submitted this year for a luxury hotel and restaurant, which will include a golf pro shop and facilities to cater for weddings.

‘It must be at least 5*. It can’t be too big - a 50-bed hotel in the Isle of Man will struggle. But it has to be commercially viable. I’m thinking 30 to 35 bigger rooms,’ he said.

‘We’ve got to build something that will enhance the environment. It must suit the landscape and enhance the golf course and also enhance the beauty of Langness and be valuable for the Isle of Man.

‘We have basic drawings but we will submit a planning application. It should be this year - we don’t want to waste time.’

He said the plans will be for a ‘fairly flat’ building that will not retain the tower of the original, explaining that golfers when they get to the final holes on the course would want to be looking back at the chapel and the civil war fort on St Michael’s Isle rather than at a modern hotel building.

Mr Vermeulen says he has plans to improve footpaths on the Langness peninsula and to renovate the ‘haunted house’ overlooking Madoc’s memorial to provide a base for Manx Birdlife and camping for birdwatchers.

Similarly, he has ambitions to provide a Manx Birdlife facility at the Smelt junction where a bronze plaque has been erected celebrating the Brent geese that are a feature of Langness in winter.

Mr Vermeulen says he also has ambitions for the Isle of Man, racing capital of the world, to be promoted as a capital of long-distance walking. ‘We’ve got some of the best endurance walkers on the planet,’ he said.

‘Let’s see if we can change attitudes - we have to think as a collective,’ he said.

The Golf Links Hotel closed in 2007 and the site sold to Dandara in 2012 which submitted plans in 2017 for a multi-million-pound hotel and flats scheme.

This was rejected by planners in 2021, that decision upheld on appeal in 2023.

The site was sold last year to Langness Golf Course Ltd.