THE hotel that famously hosted the Scotland football team in the 1970s is looking for a new owner.

The Queens Hotel closed down unexpectedly last July with signs erected saying that the premises would be undergoing a major refurbishment.

The revamp never materialised and council planning chiefs subsequently passed an application for the hotel to be flattened and flats built on the site.

However the development plan, pictured, has been at a standstill for nearly 18 months - and the hotel has been put back on the market.

Property agents Right Move are now marketing it - including the redevelopment permissions - for offers over £844,995.

They said: "The Queens Hotel has been granted planning permission to demolish the existing building and be replaced by 14 two bedroom luxury apartments.

"A communal area with lift would provide access to all apartments.

"Permissions allow each of these to have a open plan lounge, kitchen and dining area with two well-appointed bedrooms with one being further complemented with an ensuite and a family bathroom suite thereafter. Each apartment would also have a private parking space as well as visitors' parking."

Planning consent for the housing project was granted on 18 September 2018.

The agents spokesman added: "The option is there to knock it down or re-develop it as a hotel. We have had quite a bit of interest in the development."

A previous application in 2010 to demolish the hotel and construct 12 flats in an L-shaped block was refused by the local authority.

It was during a Scotland stay in 1974 at The Queen's Hotel that Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone went for a row on a boat at Largs seafront, and ended up out at sea and had to be rescued by the local lifeboat in a story that is famous in Scottish football folklore.

The national football team would regularly stay at The Queen's Hotel throughout the 1970s before matches.

The Queens is one of the few existing examples of a much-loved bygone era of hotels in the town with a classic Tudor style architecture. It has been based on Largs seafront for decades, appearing in tourism brochures dating back to the 1940s and 50s.

The hotel offered 14 rooms, of which 12 were en-suite, and two family rooms with private bathrooms.