Loch Ness Cottages

Litter around Loch Ness

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:46:00 +0000

I must say the litter dropped since last year was quite a lot less than previous year so thanks to all visitors and locals alike who hear our message “Take your litter home with you” most recent phenomenon is finding dog owners bags of dog poo!! They pick up the dog mess, bag it then leave the bag behind. Nasty for kids to find, please dog owners if you like taking your dog for walkies in our beautiful countryside please take your doggie bags home with you!

www.lochnesswelcome.co.uk have some very nice pet friendly accommodation

Litter pick success at South Loch Ness

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:25:00 +0000

What a gorgeous day on Sunday for our annual South Loch Ness Tourist Group litter pickup. We had a great turnout and cleared a stretch from Whitebridge to Dores of litter. Thanks to Highland Council support by providing Picking sticks, gloves and bin bags, and thanks to all who turned out to help. South Loch Ness is certainly looking very beautiful right now with primroses and gorse all starting to bloom. Check out our website if you would like to find accommodation at South Loch Ness. www.lochnesswelcome.co.uk

Andy Holt added you to his circles and invited you to join Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Andy Holt added you to his circles and invited you to join Google+.

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Businesses dont sell yourself short

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:07:00 +0000

There are to many really nice high quality cottages, B&B's and even hotels who sell themselves short when it comes to showing their product on the web and in printed media.

I am regularly dismayed at some of the low quality images I am given by tourism businesses for displaying their rooms or cottages on the web. The old saying, "a picture paints a thousand words" is never truer than in tourism. Anyone thinking of putting a picture on a website or advertisement should always try to see the picture as a potential customer and ask themself, "would this picture make me book into this place or buy this product" i think in very many cases the answer would be NO.

Even amateur photographers these days ought to be able to get reasonable pictures with a modern digital camera, but to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on property and high quality furnishings, then let yourself down with rubbish pictures is just economic suicide.

Take my advice, if you want to improve conversion rates for your accommodation then hire a professional photographer. He won't make a silk purse from a sows ear but sure a hell he won't make a pigs ear out of a silk purse either.

Look at this self catering property owned by a professional photographer - The Boys Dormitory to see exactly what i mean.

Author Andy www.tourism-site-fix.co.uk

The Abbey Fort Augustus Past and Present History

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:09:00 +0000

The Abbey Fort Augustus Past and Present History

Rockness Music Festival Dores Loch Ness Camping Getting There

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:22:00 +0000

Rockness Music Festival Dores Loch Ness Camping Getting There

Eildon Guest House Dining Room Bed and Breakfast Vegetarians Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Eildon Guest House Dining Room Bed and Breakfast Vegetarians Welcome
How many Bed and Breakfast businesses offer a full breakfast for Veggies like this one?
In our many trips far and wide in our experience they are few and far between!

Green is New Power in the Glens | Visit Loch Ness Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:32:00 +0000

Green is New Power in the Glens Visit Loch Ness Blog

Loch Ness Inverness Accommodation Highlands of Scotland Holiday Destination Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:17:00 +0000

Loch Ness Inverness Accommodation Highlands of Scotland Holiday Destination Guide

VPS a great a success with visitors to Loch Ness | Visit Loch Ness Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 23:15:00 +0000

VPS a great a success with visitors to Loch Ness Visit Loch Ness Blog
we used to be Gold rating in the Green Tourism Business Scheme but it became clear to us that it was not fair to make membership of Visit Scotland a condition of membership of the environmental scheme, so we left it until conditions or rules change, as they surely will.

Highlands are on board for Monopoly - Highland News

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:42:00 +0000

Highlands are on board for Monopoly - Highland News

The Honey Bees Return Home

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:43:00 +0000

Just amazing how, by coincidence last Saturday, Rosemary and I were standing on the lawn when a buzzing started, sounding like an old prop aeroplane getting louder - then we saw them. WOW! there must have been 10,000 or more - the sky was black with them circling us and landing in an steady stream and disappearing into the eaves of the house. We were thrilled - they come every year but this, seeing them arrive was really spectacular - something we had never witnessed before. Sure - we have seen swarms but not here, not arriving to setup home for summer.
We wonder why anyone could even think about getting the pest control in to remove them, they are harmless and would never sting anyone unless severely provoked. We feel privileged to have them in our home!

Walking at Loch Ness Creating a new Loch Ness Trail | Visit Loch Ness Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:56:00 +0000

Walking at Loch Ness Creating a new Loch Ness Trail Visit Loch Ness Blog

Grumpy old Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:42:00 +0000

Well I finally thought I had migrated my blog to dedicated Google hosting but have had a few problems! Google I will send you my incoice!! I won't mention the glitches I had but it sure makes me feel better having had a rant.
Now need to figure out how to send my posts to Facebook, Twitter, myspace, Linke....

Moving my Google Loch Ness Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:51:00 +0000

I wonder why after Google have allowed probably millions of people to publish blogs to their own websites they now decide to stop allowing it. It is a bloody headache for people with a number of blogs to migrate! and many hosting companies don't allow editing of DNS or Cnames.

At least I suppose Google have done their best to make migration smooth and this video helps to explain it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXEbbpLJEok&feature=player_embedded#

This blog has moved

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:43:00 +0000

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450,000 trees set to be planted in woodland scheme - Herald Scotland | News | Transport & Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:01:00 +0000

450,000 trees set to be planted in woodland scheme - Herald Scotland News Transport & Environment

Hope this scheme goes ahead we need the forest for many reasons not just for soaking up carbon. Wildlife and ameity woodland is in desperate short supply nationwide, though we in the Highlands do have more woodland and wild areas than most. We have also done our bit for wildlife and environment by planting 20,000 native trees on our own land at Errogie South Loch Ness, have a look at our About Us Page

Check labels for trickery when shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:40:00 +0000

It is so easy to take things for granted, something a number of shops these days are using to trick us into parting with a bit more of our hard earned cash.
Take yesterday for an example I wanted tipex tape and picked up a twin pack just assuming it is cheaper and of course environmentally friendy, (only one plastic carton instead of two) same packaging for a twin pack as for a single pack, but wait, I happenned to check and incredibly the two single packs are £1 cheaper than the twin pack.
Now I call that deceipt.
Two plastic cartons for the bin and yet they are cheaper!! WHSmith shame on you! a name we all know and love? It is now common practice to do this, and just because we have all been brought up to assume bigger is cheaper they try to cash in on the times our guard is down to trick us out of another few pence.
Next time you are in the supermarket, WH Smiths or any shop in fact you will regularly find twin packs are MORE than single packs.
Is this called marketing? Where will it all end?

My New Website

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:04:00 +0000

Just thought I should tell you about my new website, Loch Ness Cottages for years I have tinkered with my own self catering cottage website always using it to try out new ideas etc. Time came I just needed it to look a bit more presentable.
You know when there are only 2 barbers in town and one has nice hair and the other has rubbish hair you should choose to go to the one with rubbish hair because you could work out that he had cut the other barbers hair. Perhaps that's not a good analogy but so often people in a trade don't have time to look after their own home, garden, decorating, or as in this case, website. I asked Steven from Redkite to do it while I was away on holiday, well I am so pleased he did it for me without any fuss and you know what's best about this site? it is simple to always know where you are on it. Not so sure about the content though! i am working on it, but I guarantee it is all totally honest!! well see what our visitors have said about us if you doubt me Tripadvisor

Google street view at Loch Ness

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:52:00 +0000

Google cameras are out and about at Loch Ness, I was walking in Glenliath a very quiet lane on South Loch Ness and quiet here means just a handful of cars a day use the road and guess what comes past? the Google car with the funny tower of cameras atop. Well they really are getting into the nitty gritty now and good for them, I love it.

Trying to find somewhere to eat at Loch Ness

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:35:00 +0000

When looking for places to eat its just amazing how many places, hotels etc don’t put vital information in a prominent place on their website.

This example of an hotel in Fort Augustus I want to advise clients to go out for a meal I go to the website of a local Fort Augustus hotel to see if their restaurant is open to the public, I checked every page on the site and nowhere even in the restaurant page does it say either if the restaurant is open to the public or even whether it is for residents only.

It is generally the rule in England that hotels are hotels and restaurants are restaurants and only occasionally the twain meet. Hotels in Scotland frequently open to public but as many English people wouldn’t know that so Scottish hotels really need to state their position on whether, public, families, etc are welcome or not as the case may be. Coming from England I would always check if a hotel restaurant was open to public before going there.

So having failed to find out from the site if I could recommend the hotel to my guests I decide to phone up to find out… Amazingly there was no phone number anywhere on the site either! its a shame this nice looking site, obviously fairly new doesn’t give the important information that people visiting it need.

I gave up and looked elsewhere.

Technorati Tags: Hotels,Fort Augustus,Loch Ness,websites,Highland Club Scotland

FW: Highland Club Tennis court

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I thought as an owner of one of the Old School apartments this might be of interest to our friends and neighbours at the abbey who seem to be getting more and more used to seeing strangers wandering all around the abbey grounds. So thank you Caroline for sending out the circular below to members of Fort Augustus Business Initiative pointing out that the abbey grounds are privately owned and not an extension of the village of Fort Augustus.

From: info@fortaugustus.org
Subject: Fw: Please circulate
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 14:44:40 +0100

----- Original Message -----

From: Caroline

Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 7:15 PM

Subject: Please circulate

Hi,

I have just received a call from the Abbey, who are experiencing irate residents because they notice that non residents are using their tennis court. Apparently, it has been indicated from the Fort Augustus Tennis Club that it is acceptable for the community of Fort Augustus & its visitors to access & use the Abbey Court.

I would like to speak on behalf of the Club & stamp out such notion because although we have had previous authorisation to use the Abbey court, whilst the community one was being resurfaced & upgraded, we have certainly not made it common knowledge that the Abbey court is for use if the Fort Augustus Tennis Club Court is occupied. Why would we offer visitors or the community to use the Abbey court when we have just spent a huge amount of time & effort upgrading the one at Bunoich Brae?

Use the Abbey court at your own risk – we at the Fort Augustus Tennis Court certainly do not condone it!

On the other hand, if anyone is interested in membership of the brand new court – let me know – thanks,

Caroline

Midges and Ticks in Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:48:00 +0000

I have always been up front about midges and ticks in Scotland and in particular about midges and ticks around the Loch Ness area of Scotland, as this is where they most likely to affect us personally and our visitors. I have a full page about the little blighters here - Midges and Ticks in Scotland Most people now know there is an Avon product that is now widely used as an effective repellent and is normally only available via mail order through Avon website. But hey, yesterday whilst window shopping in Inverness i saw Avon “Skin so Soft” for sale in a shop. If you forgot to buy midge repellent before leaving home for the Highland capital or if what you have is not working, you can now get this great, word of mouth product in town! the shop called “The Body & Face Place” is selling it and you will find the shop almost opposite the Railway station entrance in Inverness.

By the way this stuff smells really nice so around the Highlands even the biggest butch type guys and their dogs smell sweet you know why!!

Driving on Single Track Roads at Loch Ness

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Driving on the roads around Loch Ness is always a pleasure, congestion free and lots of interesting stuff to see every time you go out. Even single track roads can be pleasurable!

Single track roads are common in the Highlands and they too are a pleasure to drive on USUALLY. As locals we get used to driving these roads, but they are not a recipe to get anywhere fast as you have sections of narrow road with short wider bits for passing oncoming cars lorries and bikes.

If you are not in a hurry you can always see a passing place in front that you can pull into to allow the oncoming car pass without much delay, and whoever gets to the passing place first either pulls into it or waits for the oncoming car to go into it depending on which side the lay by has been put.

Driving on single track roads demands a little give and take, a lot of courtesy and sometimes a bit of reversing if you by any chance pass the only passing place.

Here’s a tip for visitors unfamiliar with single track roads and it will help to cut down on potential road rage situations. These passing places not only allow one to pass oncoming vehicles but also allow cars behind to get past you! Use your mirrors they are the annoying little protrusions stuck on you front doors, the mirror at eye level in between the driver and from passenger can also be set so that you can see out of your rear window! Use them to see the convoy of vehicles behind you then pull into a passing place to let them get past you It is courteous and you will get smiles and waves from those drivers when you do pull in to let them go, even if you feel they shouldn’t be going faster than you.

Funny somehow so many drivers from out with the area under estimate the fragile nature of our verges and infuriatingly go tearing along totally oblivious to passing places and simply run up the verges to pass without ever having eased off the accelerator. this sometimes results in them ending up in the loch, in the ditch or in the mud. We have pulled many of these rubbish drivers out of the mire back onto the road and you know what, they ALWAYS tell us someone ran them off the road. Good drivers do not get stuck in ditches, good drivers are never fast drivers, fast drivers always have accidents sooner or later.

Here is an incident that happened today truly. Our home is heated by log burners as so many rural properties are. this weekend we were bringing trailer loads of logs form the forest to our home winter wood store it involves bringing the trailer down fairly steep single track road, the beautiful Farigaig pass. We are near the bottom and a car comes towards us straight past a passing place, the road is narrow I stop, he stops, he decides to pull off the road but he cant get far enough off the road for me to safely pass, i keep beckoning for him to reverse back to the passing place, but he looks like he is getting more and more angry because I am refusing to carve up the primrose and bluebell rich verges. He gets out and tells me to reverse 100 yards with a 2 ton trailer when all that is needed is for him to take his little car back a few yards to the passing place he drove past. it would have been courteous for him to just smile and reverse as any local would have done. (it occurred to me later perhaps he didn't have a reverse gear or perhaps he didn't know he had a reverse gear! its funny how all these things come to you later after an incident you think of all the things you might have said) its sad but it seems so many people these days are set on breaking the rules driving like lunatics on our lovely quiet roads and acting in a socially irresponsible manner with a total absence of common courtesy and so often with a mobile phone stuck to their ear.

Please, please do try to help locals help you to have a nice holiday unhurried and relaxed. We are local we don’t want to see dead squirrels, badgers, pine martens and deer carcasses littering our carved up verges, please slow down, after all that is what most visitors say they come here to do.

Loch Ness Camping

noreply@blogger.com (Andy Holt) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:43:00 +0000

Everyone’s asking about camping at Loch Ness this year! last year they all wanted hotels this year they all want camp sites.

Some ask for wild camping this is the sort of camping we like, and there are some excellent places for this around our part of lochness, I like to see it but it really makes my blood boil when they leave their rubbish and tissues lying around after they leave!!! Grrr no wonder so many places block off potential camp sites for this very reason, I hate to see piles of rocks in every possible stopping pace and I swear when I see it, but i swear even more when i see piles of rubbish left behind by campers in our beautiful wild places.

DONT DO IT or I won’t support wild camping in my back yard.