This comes at a time where the university recently announced a \u00a310 million savings plan that will cut over 111 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Gaudie <\/span><\/i>previously reported that the Georgian house had undergone \u00a3119k of renovations since 2020. This was overseen by former principal George Boyne whilst he lived in the mansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Professor Pete Edwards was the first university principal to not live in the historic mansion that overlooks St Machars Cathedral since it was first used in the 1880s.<\/span><\/p>\n It has previously been visited by King Charles while he was Duke of Ruthersay in 2009, and Olympic gold medalist Dame Katherine Grainge in 2017.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, the Chanonry Lodge\u00a0 will be turned into <\/span>\u201ca commercial meeting, event and conference space.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The transformation was announced by Estate Manager Morag Beers in the<\/span> General Council meeting in May.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The university has said that the mansion will be, \u201ctailored to suit both formal occasions and relaxed social events, allowing guests to enjoy a comfortable and memorable experience in a truly unique location.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They add, \u201cthe gardens are ideal for summer BBQs, garden parties, outdoor drinks receptions, and relaxed social gatherings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The University has projected costs over \u00a345,000 on scaffolding the mansion, \u00a315,000 on \u2018decorations\u2019 and have budgeted \u00a310,000 for the installation cable Wi-fi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a37,300 has been spent on structural repairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The rest of the renovations are made up of roofing and rendering, joinery work, provisions, and preliminaries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The university has faced significant\u00a0 financial challenges in the last few years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In April, the institution announced that they would need to save or generate \u00a312 million by 2028. This was followed by a series of cost-saving measures such as cutting smaller courses and implementing student:staff ratios.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After the university court accepted these proposals in May, it announced that 111 FTE staff would be made redundant in a \u00a310 million savings plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The university is now forecasting a \u00a34 million surplus, the first time the university has not run a deficit since 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Staff have criticised the plans, with over 1600 people signing an open letter to the university telling them to treat staff as “assets, not liabilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The University and College Union (UCU) have reported a staff health and wellbeing emergency, with a staff survey revealing that staff morale has plummeted by 35% since last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n UCU\u2019s Scotland Official, Mary Senior said: \u201cAt a time when senior management wants to cut over one hundred jobs and more at Aberdeen University, workers will be shocked to learn of a plan to spend six figure sums decorating the principal\u2019s former residence, Chanonry Lodge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe news of hundreds of thousands of pounds being allocated to doing up university premises for drinks receptions is a slap in the face to these hard-working staff.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An Aberdeen University spokesperson said, \u201c<\/span>Chanonry Lodge requires regular and at times bespoke maintenance to ensure it remains water and wind tight and fully compliant with health and safety regulations that apply to our estate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this work can be quite disruptive and it was not practical to carry it out when the building was being used as a full-time residence.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCreating additional revenue from our assets has been identified as an important part of the University\u2019s future growth strategy and work is ongoing to position Chanonry Lodge as a commercial meeting, event and conference space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Union leaders say the \u00a3200,000 spending spree at the University of Aberdeen mansion is a “slap in the face” to staff who fear potential redundancies. \u00a3200k will be spent on renovating the Chanonry Lodge that has been used to house the institution’s principals for over a hundred years. This comes at a time where the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":7829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":87,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[206,1587,1426,2044,2045,1214,1279,1920,183],"wf_post_folders":[181],"class_list":{"0":"post-7827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-aberdeen-university","9":"tag-innes-paton","10":"tag-pete-edwards","11":"tag-the-chanonry","12":"tag-the-chanonry-lodge","13":"tag-the-gaudie","14":"tag-ucu","15":"tag-university-cuts","16":"tag-university-of-aberdeen"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Innes Paton","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/innespaton\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/By-Stephencdickson-Own-work-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Aberdeen University<\/a>","Innes Paton<\/a>","pete edwards<\/a>","The Chanonry<\/a>","The Chanonry Lodge<\/a>","the gaudie<\/a>","UCU<\/a>","University Cuts<\/a>","University of Aberdeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Aberdeen University<\/span>","Innes Paton<\/span>","pete edwards<\/span>","The Chanonry<\/span>","The Chanonry Lodge<\/span>","the gaudie<\/span>","UCU<\/span>","University Cuts<\/span>","University of Aberdeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 months ago","modified":"Updated 2 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 8 July 2026","modified":"Updated on 8 July 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 8 July 2026 15:16","modified":"Updated on 8 July 2026 15:21"},"featured_img_caption":"The 200-year old Chanonry Lodge - By Stephencdickson","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7834,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions\/7834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_4644-300x225.jpg\")