We’re on the telly (almost)

Posted on 10 May, 2013 by Chris

Buchanan, which is the parish name for the east lochside area where we live, has had a bit of exposure on TV and radio lately.

Caroline Quentin did her bit to promote Loch Lomond in the first episode of Caroline Quentin’s National Parks, taking the short boat ride from Balmaha to Inchcailloch, one of the many islands in the loch.  There, she helped count bats emerging from the eaves of the ranger station at Port Bawn campsite.  You can explore Inchcailloch for yourself during a stay at the Shepherd’s House B&B – we are just three miles from Balmaha where there is also a large visitor car park and a national park information centre.

Meanwhile, Donald Macleod, the local electrician responsible for wiring our shepherd’s hut into the mains last year, featured in another episode of Take the Floor, BBC Radio Scotland’s regular traditional Scottish music programme.  Donald Macleod and his Scottish Dance Band are a world away from cables and fuse boxes, but it seems Donnie is equally at home with both his accordion and his multimeter.

UK-based web users can catch up with both these broadcasts for a short time using these links:

Caroline Quentin’s National Parks (ITV)

Take the Floor (BBC Radio Scotland)

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We’re on the telly (almost)

Posted on 10 May, 2013 by Chris

Buchanan, which is the parish name for the east lochside area where we live, has had a bit of exposure on TV and radio lately.

Caroline Quentin did her bit to promote Loch Lomond in the first episode of Caroline Quentin’s National Parks, taking the short boat ride from Balmaha to Inchcailloch, one of the many islands in the loch.  There, she helped count bats emerging from the eaves of the ranger station at Port Bawn campsite.  You can explore Inchcailloch for yourself during a stay at the Shepherd’s House B&B – we are just three miles from Balmaha where there is also a large visitor car park and a national park information centre.

Meanwhile, Donald Macleod, the local electrician responsible for wiring our shepherd’s hut into the mains last year, featured in another episode of Take the Floor, BBC Radio Scotland’s regular traditional Scottish music programme.  Donald Macleod and his Scottish Dance Band are a world away from cables and fuse boxes, but it seems Donnie is equally at home with both his accordion and his multimeter.

UK-based web users can catch up with both these broadcasts for a short time using these links:

Caroline Quentin’s National Parks (ITV)

Take the Floor (BBC Radio Scotland)

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Travel magazine in “Loch Lomond is a great place to visit” shocker

Posted on 3 May, 2013 by Chris

Condé Nast Traveller has got itself very excited about Loch Lomond – in particular, the pretty island of Inchcailloch which sits on the eastern side of the loch, close to Balmaha.

There are 23 islands in the loch, according to Conde Nast (they’re wrong – there are up to 60, depending on the water level on any given day), and Inchcailloch is clearly their favourite.

Woodland paths, the quiet campsite at Port Bawn and the Highland Boundary Fault, a geological feature which runs beneath the island and across the loch, are all on the magazine’s list of reasons why Inchcailloch deserves a place in its roll of “Tiny Islands of Britain”.

The Shepherd’s House lies just three miles from Balmaha Boatyard, from where you can take a short ride across the water to Inchcailloch or take a cruise by water taxi to a variety of destinations around the lochside.

You can read the Condé Nast feature here, and if it whets your appetite for a highland adventure of your own, please complete the Quick Booking Query form on the right hand side of this page.  We would be delighted to welcome you to the Shepherd’s House B&B.

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Saturday night at the movies

Posted on 18 April, 2013 by Chris

We’ve gone a little bit goggle-eyed here at the Shepherd’s House B&B.  For the first time in years, our own family holiday to the pretty Clyde island of Great Cumbrae coincided with the arrival of the Screen Machine, Britain’s only mobile cinema, which tours the highlands and islands bringing the latest films to communities that normally wouldn’t get the chance to see them until they appear on DVD or TV.

Three excited children and two excited parents got to see Wreck it Ralph on a big screen housed in the back of a 40-tonne lorry parked on the pier in Millport.  The back of the lorry concertinas outwards, allowing upwards of 150 seats in rows of eight to pop up facing a good-sized screen with a digital projector.  Once you’re inside and the doors are shut, you really could be in a ‘proper’ cinema!

One of the reasons this was all so exciting is that the nearest cinema to us is a good 45-50 minutes’ drive away, either down in Clydebank or across in Stirling.  But we heard some more good news this week – the disused Imax screen at Loch Lomond Shores is being brought back to life to show the latest blockbuster releases.  Loch Lomond Shores, at Balloch, is a mere 30 minutes from here, which really is just round the corner when you’re used to living in tranquil isolation on the east lochside.

The Imax screen was installed in the Drumkinnon Tower at Loch Lomond Shores when the complex opened as a visitor centre in 2002, but fell out of use when the Tower was converted into a Sea Life Centre (apart from showing a continuous loop of the standard Sea Life showreel on a horrible low quality video projector).  Fair dos to them though, it is Sea Life that has made the effort to get proper screenings going again.  They’re calling it a community cinema and while we don’t know at this stage whether they’re returning to full-size Imax projection, they are certainly aiming for proper, big screen pictures.  And lots of popcorn.

Bring it on!

The Screen Machine on Millport Pier

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Rowardennan Easter Egg hunting

Posted on 2 April, 2013 by Chris

When you live in a tourist destination, you have to make an extra effort to visit the tourist attractions from time to time.  Otherwise, the fact that they’re always there means you risk forgetting about them, and never enjoying them.

So the National Trust for Scotland’s Easter Egg hunt was a perfect excuse for us to head up to the far side of Rowardennan, to Ardess Lodge where there is an interpretation centre and history trail.  Fraser the ranger has added a treasure hunt to the trail and our three children spent a fun hour running up and down the hillside collecting clues to reveal the name of a certain famous local cattle drover and sometime rustler.  And at the end of it they exchanged their filled-in answer sheets for a nice big chocolate egg.  Not that any of them needed any more chocolate of course!

We rounded the afternoon off with tea in the bar at the Rowardennan Hotel, somewhere else we’ve not been for ages, unless you count my near-daily trips to the car park to collect and drop off our own guests!

Easter Egg hunt on the Ardess History Trail, Rowardennan

A family Easter Egg hunt on the Ardess History Trail, Rowardennan

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Time for a few changes

Posted on 7 February, 2013 by Chris

We have had our shepherd’s hut now for almost exactly a year – the first anniversary of its delivery is later this month. And it’s time to take everything we learned about doing B&B, hut style, and make sure we’re offering the very best experience we can for our 2013 guests.

To that end, I’ve been in the Shepherd’s Rest with my tool bag this week and removed the fold-down bunk bed that allowed us to offer it as twin or triple occupancy as well as double. Despite the glowing feedback we’ve received from couples who have stayed in the hut, we think we can do better, but to do better we think we need to offer them a little more space to spread themselves about what is after all a fairly small space.

Having the fold-down bunk was great because it allowed us to convert from double to twin and back again in just a couple of minutes, but the one drawback was that the bunk took up the whole end wall of the hut. Now it’s gone, and I’ve made the necessary repairs with wood filler and paint, we’re going to invest in some clever shelving that will allow couples and single guests to unpack a little and really make the space their own during their stay.

It’s a pity that we won’t be able to accommodate requests for a twin room for the foreseeable future but we believe doing one thing very well is better than doing lots of things adequately and if you come and stay in the Shepherd’s Rest this summer, we hope you will agree!

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Time for a few changes

Posted on 7 February, 2013 by Chris

We have had our shepherd’s hut now for almost exactly a year – the first anniversary of its delivery is later this month. And it’s time to take everything we learned about doing B&B, hut style, and make sure we’re offering the very best experience we can for our 2013 guests.

To that end, I’ve been in the Shepherd’s Rest with my tool bag this week and removed the fold-down bunk bed that allowed us to offer it as twin or triple occupancy as well as double. Despite the glowing feedback we’ve received from couples who have stayed in the hut, we think we can do better, but to do better we think we need to offer them a little more space to spread themselves about what is after all a fairly small space.

Having the fold-down bunk was great because it allowed us to convert from double to twin and back again in just a couple of minutes, but the one drawback was that the bunk took up the whole end wall of the hut. Now it’s gone, and I’ve made the necessary repairs with wood filler and paint, we’re going to invest in some clever shelving that will allow couples and single guests to unpack a little and really make the space their own during their stay.

It’s a pity that we won’t be able to accommodate requests for a twin room for the foreseeable future but we believe doing one thing very well is better than doing lots of things adequately and if you come and stay in the Shepherd’s Rest this summer, we hope you will agree!

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Snow joke!

Posted on 25 January, 2013 by Chris

As I write this we are under several inches of snow and it’s still falling heavily. We thought we were going to get away with it this morning when it started raining on top of last night’s snowfall, but that just made everything slushy and unpleasant. Then fresh snow fell on top of it, so it looks pristine and picture postcard until you step in it. Squelch! We have put up a few photos for you on our Facebook page.

Still, the bad weather’s good for our winter maintenance programme because it means we’re not tempted to go out for long afternoon walks up the hillside. I’ve made good progress with new splash-backs for the kitchen work surfaces and ducting for our extractor hood. Jenny has made good progress sourcing new shelving for the Shepherd’s Rest, where we will shortly be removing the upper bunk in order to create a little more storage space for guest use. It does mean we will no longer be able to offer twin occupancy in the hut, but on balance we believe that improving the offering for couples and single guests is a better option.

It’s time to down tools now though; it’s Burns Night and we have haggis, neeps and tatties to prepare for tea. Yummy!

Wild Loch Lomond haggis, freshly caught on the Sallochy hillside yesterday morning

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Top of the list for 2013

Posted on 3 January, 2013 by Chris

Those nice people at CNN have put Scotland at the top of their list of must-visit travel destinations for 2013. And we couldn’t agree more!

The cable news channel’s travel experts looked at a range of factors including bargains, new airline routes and special events as they compiled their top seven for the new year.

Among the attractions that helped Scotland clinch the top spot are “The Year of Natural Scotland”, a 12-month programme of events celebrating the country’s stunning natural beauty, and the opening of the Scottish National Trail, a long-distance walking route that runs from the border to Cape Wrath, taking in some of the most popular trails and tourist destinations along the way.

The Scottish National Trail includes parts of the West Highland Way, which of course is where we are – so whether you’re stepping out onto the trail this year, or planning to visit Scotland on CNN’s recommendation, be sure to drop us a line and book a stay at the Shepherd’s House.

Read the CNN report here.

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The nitty gritty

Posted on 10 December, 2012 by Chris

I’ve been pinging emails back and forth for a week now with our local council over its policy of not gritting the road to Rowardennan.  We are on what they call a ‘Priority 3′ route, which means the gritter doesn’t come here until it has finished everywhere else.  In very cold weather when the roads keep re-freezing, the gritter is never finished everywhere else, and our road simply gets more and more ice-bound until it becomes impassable.

This causes us problems because it means the school minibus can’t get up here in the morning and we end up with a houseful of children, who get pretty fed up when they find out how willing their parents are to get schoolwork emailed over for them to do.  Ha ha!  It’s not such a huge concern for us from a B&B point of view because we close down for repairs and redecorating in December and January, but there are other businesses here that do suffer.  We live in hope that Stirling Council will one day realise that neglecting the eastern access to one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world is not a viable policy if they are serious about developing the economy and tourism in the area.

Posted in Loch Lomond, The Balmaha-Rowardennan Road, The Shepherd's House, The West Highland Way | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off