News from David & Valery Dean, from The Lazy Duck, Cairngorms

Current and former owners of Cairngorms Hostels gathered on Sunday 1st Dec at The Lazy Duck in Nethy Bridge to mark the retirement of David & Valery Dean.  Having built their hostel business and associated camping and eco-accommodation within the now, six acre site, they have decided to hand over the running of the accommodation and associated care of the wildfowl on the Fhuarain Burn, to take life at a steadier pace.

A big part of the hostelling community

Over the last 20 years Valery and David have built up their business to include a variety of accommodation. More importantly, throughout this period, they have devoted their voluntary time to the wider hostelling business with David holding the appointments of Chairperson of Scottish Independent Hostels (formerly Independent Backpackers Hostels Scotland) and Cairngorms Hostels.  Along with Ian Bishop and Rebecca Mackellar, formerly of Slochd Hostel and Ardenbeg Bunkhouse respectively, they worked with the Cairngorms Business Partnership to bring hostels from both sides of the Cairngorms National Park together for marketing and business purposes. Valery, in the meantime continued to support David in the business whilst bringing up their family and grandchildren and well as visiting her mother, who also lived close by. Dealing with the quirky personalities of individual hostel owners has been tricky at times and at the helm, David used his tact and good humour to enable a diverse group of businesses to ‘collaborate to compete’ .

New steward tenants for Lazy Duck

David and Valery are leaving a superb legacy. The Lazy Duck now has new Steward tenants, Sarah Miller and Phil Hodgkiss  who are intending to treasure and maintain the ethos at The Lazy Duck and to retain, in a different way, its hostel status.  Independent Hostelling within the Cairgnorms National Park and beyond in Scotland,  is definitely more successful as a result of these two hard-working, caring and enabling individuals.

Hostel keepers come in all shapes and sizes

In Fond Memory of Tom Jones, 

By David Dean

Amongst us, Tom Jones who with his wife Allyson created the quirky state of the art Carr Bridge Bunkhouse and who died last month whilst on holiday in Greece, was a true giant.  Tom's bunkhouse and, in particular, the intimate and all-embracing hospitality for which he and Allyson are renowned has, for years, been a model of right minded hostel keeping.

The aroma of fresh brewed coffee and home baked loaves drifting from Allyson's oft visited kitchen, the fun in the garden, their doted upon children and grandchildren, then hens with a mind of their own and invigorating conversation all made for the magic she and Tom exuded in order to be the hosts they have to hundreds.

INDEPENDENT hostel keepers are a breed apart.

So strikingly sure of their values were they that when independent hostels' organisations, in their view, strayed too far into the world of plasticised and homogenised star grading and silly requirements from matching cutlery and carpets onwards, Tom and Allyson stood apart.  " Thanks, but no thanks!" or words to that effect. I remember them so clearly.

Tom, with David & Juan Carlos at an
impromptu jam session at the Lazy Duck

Since those days of near conflict these organisations and the VisitScotland whip which attempted to drive them have stepped away from such folly.  Our hostels surely are a statement of ourselves.  If, as was Tom, we are happily unusual, healthily idiosyncratic even and hanging on to our authenticity in what we offer guests and how we welcome them, we are being true to ourselves.

To Tom, Valery and I owe a debt of real gratitude.  In our setting up the Lazy Duck Hostel in 1998 we were blessed with every encouragement possible together with strong role modelling from Carr Bridge Bunkhouse.  Tom with our other good friend, Ian Bishop of Slochd Mhor Lodge Hostel, ate with us here only weeks ago.

Thanks for everything Tom; hostelling owes you.

For an appreciation, which moved me much, one of far greater depth and some real history on Tom I suggest a read of this blog "Tom Jones RIP- My mate, family man, PTI, Outdoor Man, Prankster and great human being."