Crieff Hydro to open three-court indoor padel facility in September

Crieff Hydro has secured planning permission for Padel Barn, a three-court indoor padel facility that will open in early September at its flagship Perthshire resort. The hotel is converting its former indoor riding arena into a year-round sports space, bringing one of the fastest-growing racquet sports into the centre of its leisure offer.

The move is more than a simple amenity upgrade. Padel Barn is designed for hotel guests, Country Club members, local residents and day visitors, giving Crieff Hydro a broader catchment than a standard members-only club model. Three indoor courts also give the resort enough scale to host multiple sessions at once, which matters for a sport that thrives on repeat play, casual bookings and social group demand.

Crieff Hydro has been pushing that wider leisure strategy throughout 2025, when it completed a multi-million-pound investment programme that included a new day-to-night bar. Padel now becomes part of the same commercial playbook: extend dwell time, create another reason to visit outside overnight stays, and add a fresh hook for families and younger leisure customers who may not have been drawn in by the hotel’s traditional country-house appeal alone.

The real test for Padel Barn will be in the numbers the resort can generate once the courts are in play. Room bookings, Country Club sign-ups and off-season footfall will show whether padel can do more than add a headline. For a legacy hotel in Perthshire, the sport is being used as a modernisation tool as much as a recreational one.

Crieff Hydro is not alone. A hotel in York run by Marriott has lodged plans to replace existing tennis courts with padel facilities for guests and the local community, underlining how quickly the sport is moving from niche to mainstream hospitality asset. In Scotland, Gleneagles has already positioned padel alongside tennis as part of its leisure identity. At Crieff Hydro, the old riding arena is about to become a new kind of draw, and the pace of bookings will tell whether the bet pays off.