Lochs & Glens

Tummel on a crisp November morning with the hoar frost still on the trees despite the early sunshine. Scotland can be particularly attractive in the winter and is the perfect setting for our Mountains and Mistletoe pre-Christmas breaks.

From early November, these holidays come complete with the party spirit and cram Christmas Day, Boxing Day and News Years Eve in the space of just four or five days. They also include day excursions and usually visit another Lochs and Glens Hotel where lunch is included.

Dates and details are available from our booking office or from our web site www.lochsandglens.com.This same site can also be used for making reservations and booking on the internet is becoming increasingly popular with over 15% of all bookings now being made in this way.

We were somewhat apprehensive about the effect that the no-smoking legislation introduced in Scotland in the Spring would have on our guests. In fact it has really been a non-event, with the overwhelming majority of guests accepting it without question, indeed many welcoming it.

The only irritation to us has been the demand by Health and Safety inspectors that we put up more and more no–smoking signs despite the fact that nobody has smoked in public areas for several months!

As usual, next year's programme of tours is included with this newsletter.There are some new excursions and some variations on past favourites.We always welcome suggestions for new ideas from our guests, so if you have a destination you think would prove to be popular, please let us know.We can't promise to include it, but we will certainly consider it.

Michael Wells

It is more than four years since we ventured out of Scotland to offer tours elsewhere. After some research and a lot of travelling we chose Cantabria, a province at the western end of The Pyrenees in northern Spain, a green unspoilt mountainous area - in many ways not unlike Scotland.

The holidays proved to be remarkably popular - each season we have increased the number of departures so that now we are planning to extend our programme to Catalonia in the province of Girona at the eastern end of the Pyrenees.

We have organised some tours to this interesting and little visited part of Spain from a few areas in 2007 and, if the holidays prove to be popular, we would hope arrange more departures from other parts of the UK in future years.

The holidays will include a contrasting range of day excursions including one to Cadaque, a picturesque fishing village much loved by artists including Picasso and Dali. Dali spent part of his early life here and, as you can see, the old town has changed very little since he painted this picture of the Santa Maria cathedral 80 years ago.

Other day excursions will include a visit to the ancient city of Girona, with its maze of narrow cobbled lanes in the beautifully restored centre, a journey on Spain's only funicular railway high in the Pyrenees, a cruise on Lake Banyoles and visit to Besula noted for its wealth of Romanesque architecture.

Guests staying at the Loch Long Hotel cannot miss Arrochar's ancient pier that for many years has been steadily disappearing as each winter storm takes away a few more timbers, but at one time it was the main point of access to the village.

The first steamers arrived in Arrochar in 1817. Defiance, Comet and Oscar were three early wooden paddle steamers to ply the route, but in those days passengers disembarked at a jetty until, in 1850 with the arrival of the first iron steamers, the pier was built. Passengers were able to sail to Arrochar from Largs, Rothsay, Dunoon and Gourock as well as Glasgow. One old steamer - the Queen of Scots made a special run to Arrochar each Sunday, leaving Glasgow at 5am and returning late in the evening in order that passengers could attend communion at Arrochar Church. However to quote an early account 'Many unholy scenes were witnessed on the steamer and ashore due to Glasgow youths whose piety took them on this trip spending more time gathering shell fish during the day and roasting them round the steamer's funnel on the journey home'.

During the final decade of the 19th century there was intense competition between the railway companies that operated many of the steamer services on Scottish lochs and at one time no less than three separate companies provided a service to Arrochar Pier, each trying to provide a faster more luxurious service.

Cargo vessels arrived with coal and lime from Glasgow and Ireland and, from Arrochar, wool was sent to the Liverpool market. The pier reached its heyday at the turn of the century with sometime four steamers berthed alongside at busy times, but with the arrival of the railway and the requisitioning of many vessels during the first world war the slow decline in the pier's life began. By the early 70's it was scarcely used and when one particularly violent storm caused considerable damage, sadly its fate was sealed.

Falkland Palace dominates the historic pretty village of Falkland in the Kingdom of Fife. It was built as a residence for King James IV in 1500 on the site of a much earlier fortress that dates back to the 12th century.

Mary, Queen of Scots spent some of her early life here and the building was in constant use by royalty until 1603 when the Royal Court moved to London following the succession of James VI to the English throne.Thereafter the Palace remained in the care of a keeper who was not usually resident and, as a result, the building began to fall into decay and was not helped by the brief occupation by Cromwell when the north range burned down.

Its demise continued right up until 1887 when it was acquired by the Marquess of Bute who fortunately began a programme of much needed restoration.The National Trust took over the property in 1952 and after further improvements it was opened to the public. Falkland Palace is just one of 28 listed properties in this picturesque village and should prove to be a popular day excursion. It will be included in our 2007 holidays that specialise in visiting properties in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.

These holidays will be based at the Loch Achray Hotel and will also include excursions to Hill House, the unique property designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Geilston Garden in Cardross and Pollock House, the elegant Glasgow mansion set in an estate that, for 700 years had been owned by the Macdonald family. Culzean Castle, the Robert Adam creation dramatically sited on the Ayrshire coast will also feature in the itinerary. Its cliff-top situation was much loved by President Eisenhower who stayed there several times, both during his presidency and in his retirement.

As an extra bonus each guest will receive one year's complimentary membership of the National Trust for Scotland, giving full access to all of their properties and the National Trust's properties in England and Wales. As this would normally cost £37 these breaks really do represent superb value for money!

This beautiful loch-side walk to the Inversnaid Hotel is just one of 26 routes described in the fully illustrated booklet Walking from Lochs and Glens Hotels.

Taking a day off from coach travel to walk in the unspoiled Scottish countryside is becoming increasingly popular and we hope that this booklet will be helpful to guests so inclined.

It is available for sale at any of our hotels or it can be purchased by mail order from the address shown at the foot of page four at a cost of £4.95 including p & p.

Fiona and Fenella our resident highland cows taking centre stage as usual, loving the attention from our Loch Achray guests.

Norman Chinnock is pictured here in his office against a background of tachographs, the print-outs from the 'black boxes' that are carried on each of our fleet of 16 coaches to record the details of every journey. Born and bred in Wales, he has spent his career in coach travel and is well qualified to take over from Transport Manager Brian Nicols when Brian retires next April.

Norman first started touring Scotland with National Holidays in 1983 until he was promoted to the position of Inspector and inevitably thereafter became known as 'Blakey! In 1993 he moved to the coach operator Shearings until a fortunate meeting with Brian Nicols in 2002 led to him joining Lochs and Glens Transport.

After completing the necessary exams he was awarded a Certificate of Professional Competency by the Department of Transport and, although we will all miss Brian being at the helm of our Transport Division, we have every confidence that Norman will be a worthy successor.

His hobbies include travel, DIY, gardening and fishing and, with his partner Anna, is happily settled in the village of Arrochar.