About Owners

Many past guests have asked how the creation of Scottish Woods Resort and the castle came about…
On a two-week vacation to Scotland in 1998, John and Lorraine fell in love with the people, the country, (especially the Scottish Highlands), the culture, and they discovered a new meaning and interest in their Scottish roots. On one special day in particular, while sitting on a hillside over-looking Eileen Donan Castle and Loch Duich, they dreamed impractical dreams, (as most dreams are), of spending their lives together in these magnificent and magical Scottish Highlands.

John is a "McKenzie" on his mother’s side, and his grandfather was a "Jackson". Lorraine’s grandmother was a "Watts". John never knew his real father. He was raised thinking that "Panagos" was his real surname, and that he was Greek, like his stepfather. He found out the truth much later in life.

After the Scotland trip, and after some deep digging into his "real" McKenzie roots, John had "McKenzie" added to his name legally, and has continued his heritage quest through to the present.

In 1998, a lifestyle-altering event took place. John and Lorraine’s best friends, and "across the street" Florida neighbors, bought property in Robbinsville, NC. After much urging by them, John and Lorraine visited NC one weekend in July of 1998. It reminded them so much of the Scottish Highlands they had just returned from and so loved. On a second visit a few months later, they fell in love with and put a deposit on 26 acres of beautiful rolling land in Murphy, NC. It only had a cottage and a barn on it then. On January 15, 1999, they took title to the property, and moved to what they eventually developed and named, "Scottish Woods".

Much of their Scottish Highland "dream" has been realized…
They successfully developed Scottish Woods Resort, adding three new guest rental log cabins, plus the owners three-story log cabin. They added stables, barns, fencing, two Scottish Highland Coo’s, as many as seventeen miniature horses, etc. The three hundred vine vineyard they planted is prospering. And the intimate first phase of the Castle McKenzie project is complete. In late 2004 they decided that it was time to "pass the gauntlet" so to speak, and sell the front portion of Scottish Woods. It was time to concentrate on the rest of the dream… completion of Castle McKenzie... their eventual retirement castle in the mountains.

In May of 2005, just two weeks before John’s heart attack and open-heart surgery while on vacation in Florida, they sold the rental cabins, along with just over seven acres, to George and Pat Betzhold, from the Los Angeles, CA. area. They had promised to carry on the dream and traditions of Scottish Woods Resort, freeing up John and Lorraine to continue with the next phase of their life plan… building their dream castle.

Since October 1, 2005… John and Lorraine have continued to share their Scottish dream with guests who stay in the "Castle McKenzie at Tulach Ard", in Scottish Woods. In case you are wondering what "tulach ard" means... it is "the high ground" in Gaelic. Guest occupancy has been on a very limited basis...