Self catering with a very tasty difference in Strontian
by - 13:41 on 26 September 2007
Here’s a pleasant picture of the hills of Ardgour in the West Highlands, catching the last of the light, at the end of an autumn day of sunshine and showers. It looks wild and remote and you can almost hear the stags roaring in the upper glen.
Zoom back – no, wait, I think I changed lenses – and you can see that, instead of a rugged and craggy foreground, there are two women in a hot tub. Nothing rugged and craggy about them, let me tell you.
This is the view from the patio of Honeysuckle Cottage, one of two self-catering properties at Bluebell Croft, which is at Strontian, on the way to the Ardnamurchan Peninsula in Scotland’s West Highlands. (We were there, by invitation, for a weekend visit. No, we don’t do this sort of thing a lot.)
Strontian gave its name to the chemical element strontium, later isolated from the compound strontianite after its discovery here in 1791. There is still evidence of former mining activity in then upper glen, and you could fossick around for all kinds of geological bits up there. Lower down, the glen is also noted for the national nature reserve of the Ariundle oakwoods. www.nnrscotland.org.uk/reserve.asp?NNRId=25.
These native oakwoods of the west are apparently even older than the Caledonian pinewoods whose remnants seem to be an icon of wild Scotland. The lush growth of ferns and mosses in the woodland setting are an inevitable reminder of the soft rain that falls here. The, uhmm, frequent precipitation ensures that every self-catering property for miles around has a very good selection of children’s toys and games for those moist days.
This in turn brings us back to Bluebell Croft. Someone else (not known to us) has extra miled them, I note (see main comments) and that gives good background. Though the accommodation is of high standard and in a fine location, our observation would be that the important part of this tourism product www.bluebellcroft.co.uk/bluebell.htm is the way the extras like the dining and catering options blur the boundary between the usual definitions of self-catering and hotel-type accommodation. A slowly-simmered casserole awaiting you on arrival? No problem. Some newly harvested salads and vegetables to go with it? We’ll drop them off for you.
Sure, lots of people want hot tubs – but for me, it was fresh food with no food miles, grown within sight of the property, that made this place special. (Plus the hot scones on arrival as part of the package.)
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