Liverpool gets ball rolling on Colomendy

Having taken the keys back in summer 2025 after tenant-operator Kingswood’s demise, the city council has engaged Newmark to find a buyer for the North Wales outdoor activity centre.

The 106-acre holding, at Loggerheads, close to Denbighshire’s border with Flintshire, has been in the control of Liverpool City Council since the 1950s, and staying there for week-long school trips famously became a rite of passage for Liverpool schoolchildren for generations.

Colomendy is set within the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape. LCC said that the site includes a wide range of facilities, from accommodation and activity spaces to teaching areas and extensive grounds suited to leisure, tourism and education uses.

At its heart sits the historic Colomendy Hall, offering further potential for refurbishment or reuse, subject to consents.

Kingswood Learning & Leisure took over as operator of the site as tenant in the early 2000s, but with the site ageing, alternatives growing by the year and schools and trusts taking over their own budgets for trips, visitor numbers dwindled.

The site was closed in early 2025, as Kingswood Colomendy and parent group Inspiring Learning, along with three other Kingswood companies, went into administration. Operator PGL took on three of Kingswood’s 10 sites.

The companies were placed into administration with Teneo Financial Advisory, with the latest administrator’s report, from February this year, reporting a debt pile of around £54m group-wide. Secured creditor Natwest had by that point received around £3m of the £7m it was owed.

Colomendy was returned to LCC, which mothballed the site as the most effective way of keeping on top of ongoing maintenance costs.

Place understands that since then, soft marketing has been carried out, with the local authority encouraged enough by the level of interest from credible providers that giving the centre a new beginning has been ramped up the agenda.

As the BBC reported last summer, all buildings – the main Glyn Alyn boarding school building and five dormitory blocks – require renovation, while single-storey timber dormitory blocks may come down.

Kingswood’s online marketing for school trips, still online, talks of stays there offering environmental field study courses, canoeing and kayaking on a purpose-built lake, climbing, abseiling, ziplining, bouldering and high ropes activities.

There are two organisations currently using parts of the site: Prospects 2000, and North Wales Mountain Rescue.

Cllr Nick Small, cabinet member for growth and economy at LCC, said: “We are bringing Colomendy to market to secure a bold new future for one of the region’s most important and historic sites.

“Working closely with Denbighshire County Council, partners and local stakeholders, our focus is on finding a long-term use that reflects local ambitions and delivers real, lasting benefits.

“Colomendy has a deep-rooted connection with Liverpool, dating back to its role during the Second World War, and we are determined to see that heritage respected. The right proposal will not only protect that legacy, but create a positive and enduring impact for generations to come.”

Cllr Alan James, lead member for local development and planning at Denbighshire County Council, said: “We’re really pleased to see Liverpool City Council promoting the valuable Colomendy outdoor education site to secure its use for the future.

“Colomendy sits in a prime location, and over the years, it has welcomed generations of young people from Liverpool who have built a lifelong connection with this part of north Wales and its communities.

“Ensuring the long-term viability of this site for future generations is important to us here at Denbighshire and we will work with Liverpool City Council and partners to make sure that this happens.”

Leo Llewellyn, associate at Newmark, said: “Colomendy represents a rare opportunity to acquire a substantial outdoor leisure and education asset within a highly attractive natural setting.

“The combination of an established operational base, the character and heritage of Colomendy Hall, and wider development potential across the estate creates a compelling opportunity for investors or operators looking to deliver a distinctive long-term destination.”