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| Abernethy Highland Games August 8th 2015 |
We find that it is at the 'Goodbye' stage that most guests
linger a bit to tell something of themselves, discover more about us and maybe
ask for help with their forward journey plans.
So many are going from hostel to hostel and it is really great to be
able to identify with their route and destinations.
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| Yet more pipe bands - with Smugglers Hostel |
Quite often we know, or know of, the other hostels and although the SIH scene is changing and
healthily expanding we still find ourselves sending greetings far and
wide:- Rousay Hostel, Orkney, Badralloch,
Dundonnell – again!, Sleeperzzz, Rogart, The Poor House, Tongue, Dun Flodigarry,
Skye – again!, Cullen Harbour, Hostel, Comrie Croft, Iona Hostel, Smugglers
Hostel, Tomintoul and Haggis Hostels, Edinburgh have, just this year, each been
sent a jolly message from us via ever willing hosteller couriers.
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| A hostel wedding! |
Now we don't do weddings.
We are too small and not geared up for that kind of invasion. That said, we have just done one. Rather, 'they', the bride and groom and their
ten guests 'did' it. They brought
absolutely everything from plastic plates, gleaming picnic cutlery, glasses, Malbec
red wine, magnificent pate's, cheese, meats and exquisite 'Jolie'
champagne. We did the flowers from our
riot of a wild flower garden. The Registrar from the local town was recruited
to conduct the ceremony on a Monet style bridge spanning our watercourse and
the bride and groom sang their own composition with guitar accompaniment from a
musically talented guest.
There were two rather astonishing aspects to that memorable
day. Firstly, our whole hostel team was
invited as guests to witness the ceremony and then to join in the feast which
followed under cover outdoors. Secondly,
Benoit and Sophie with their whole wedding party had come from France. They had been in Scotland only once. Ireland they knew, but it was Scotland with
its misty ambience of legend and fling they wanted. Then, from a wealth of equally worthy
possibilities they chose to come here for their bespoke event.
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| The romance of a hostel wedding |
When the couple sang, the sun broke through and with the
Scottish dancing which followed, led quite terribly by Hostelkeeper, the happy
event rolled on through several bottles until it was time for the taxi to take
our French guests away to dinner. At the
pub, an icon for traditional music, and as accomplished singers and players, they had been invited to contribute to the
evening's musical entertainment. The
whole day was rounded off by fiddler Charlie McKerron and friends en route from
the west coast, who had us and the whole place hopping until throwing out time.
When the party left us on tour for the Black Isle, Ullapool
and the Inveraray Games http://www.inveraray-games.co.uk/
we experienced a sense of loss.
They took with them our fondest good wishes and the engraved quaich we
commissioned for them. Would we do it again?
Unlikely, unless we could be convinced that what we have on offer here
really would meet the expectations of the wedding party and be well within our
own coping capacities.
A week later our team took a few hours off to brave the
incredibly high winds at the Tomintoul Games.
http://www.tomintoulhighlandgames.co.uk/ I blethered early on to old pal, Jimmy
Hamilton from Aberdeen. Jimmy was one of
two judges for the senior piping event.
We agreed that just how, in that gale, any pipe could be properly heard
or kilt managed without indecency was beyond us. If the hammer throw had ended up being
carried as far as Ballater we would not have been surprised. The Games though survived and we all hurried
back for the arrivals of hostel and camping guests at 4.00pm. The next traditional Highland Games in the
annual circuit is of course the Abernethy Highland Games http://nethybridge.com/highland-games/ at Nethy Bridge on Saturday 8th August.
Jimmy might be there and our team, hopes
to make the trip for a few hours.
By the way, and for connoisseurs, the legendary 'Whisky
Castle' Tomintoul http://www.whiskycastle.com/ has just changed hands. Mike and Cathy Drury have, after a twelve
year distinguished and riotously hospitable tenure, departed for a life of
B&B to Fionnphort by the ferry to Iona from Mull. Scott and Sam Ashforth are now dispensing the
tasters and aiming to progress the business.
I for one wish them well. Each successive owner of The Whisky Castle
seems miraculously to combine a thorough knowledge of the vast range of over
five hundred malts they stock and the
secret world of whisky production for
which The Whisky Castle has been a noted ambassador for over one hundred years.
If the tastings on offer prove too much for you to travel,
consider toddling up the road to The Smugglers' Hostel http://www.thesmugglershostel.co.uk/
where Kerry and her team will bathe your head. Sorry, they might bathe
your head.
Next month a small gathering of hostel owners and managers
arrives here for what has become something of a punctuation mark in our
year. Not that we do it every year but
now seems just the time to revive this convivial and useful tradition. Why useful?
The 'Bite & Blether'
gathering, well over twenty years old, has been an irregular, liberating
and quite unofficial way of sharing one
with another just the latest gossip, good news, bad news and in between
news. No speeches, unless one of us is
retiring, just good yet meaningful 'craic'.
That way there is a three way benefit:- at home, we learn from our hostel guests and
tailor what hospitality we can offer accordingly. We pass that 'learning' exercise on to other
hostel owners who have come to the gathering bringing contributions of food and
whatever. Each of us then has the
opportunity to translate those experiences of our friends and colleagues into
our own hostel's forward planning to make the whole experience a roll of good
news for those guests who come to us next.
Enjoy the summer.
Hostelkeeper
