Anton's opinion
Anyway regarding New Year 2006/07 – I’m probably only about 10% likely to attend. I’ll give you the places that I’ve stayed in over the past couple of years
2001/02 – Crask Inn, about 10miles north of Lairg
2002/03 – Rua Reidh lighthouse on the west coast, about 5 miles NW Gairloch
2003/04 – Glen Cannich
2004/05 – hostel in Knoydart (on the mainland inaccessable by road – only accessed by passenger ferry which runs on Wed, Fri and Sun from Mallaig.)
2005/06 – Roshven, 4miles S of Lochailort.
All of the places have been extremely remote, though we did go to a pub after New Year in Crask Inn and Knoydart. Consider the following:
I’ve never booked the cottage myself, but it’s always been booked for a week and some people have stayed on for the whole week.
We’ve always booked fairly early – probably always before summer, sometimes as early as Feb of that year.
What is the purpose of the visit? If it’s to get away from it all then fine, but if you intend to spend New Years eve or any evening, in a pub, think very carefully where you want to go. Also what do you want to do during the day? Number of Shops usually = 0. If you don’t like walking/outdoors it’s not going to be fun. You’ll probably need to go to one of the bigger centers.
What clothes do you intend to take – sometimes with log fires, the chimney doesn’t work very well and rooms can get smoky. Thick pajamas are usually essential. The bedrooms in Crask Inn permanently hovered around 6 degrees! Hat gloves, headtorch, boots, gore-tex jacket, fleece essential.
We’ve always cooked for ourselves (nearest takeaway usually 15+ miles away) and usually takes turns to cook for the night.
Roads in 2001/02 and 2003/04 were bad with a lot of snow and ice around. In 2001/02 there was the bizarre sight of seeing a snow-plough trapped in the snow awaiting rescue!! In Edinburgh/Glasgow and on the west coast there wasn’t a flake of snow. But the west is 3 times wetter than the east.
Don’t want to sound patronizing or trying to dampen any enthusiasm, but a cottage in Scotland will be nothing like Cork. My own opinion would be that you try to head for one of the centers (Aviemore, Fort William, Perth etc etc) rather then somewhere very isolated. It will be less physically beautiful but much more to do during the day and at night and you won’t be surrounded by each other all day every day!
2001/02 – Crask Inn, about 10miles north of Lairg
2002/03 – Rua Reidh lighthouse on the west coast, about 5 miles NW Gairloch
2003/04 – Glen Cannich
2004/05 – hostel in Knoydart (on the mainland inaccessable by road – only accessed by passenger ferry which runs on Wed, Fri and Sun from Mallaig.)
2005/06 – Roshven, 4miles S of Lochailort.
All of the places have been extremely remote, though we did go to a pub after New Year in Crask Inn and Knoydart. Consider the following:
I’ve never booked the cottage myself, but it’s always been booked for a week and some people have stayed on for the whole week.
We’ve always booked fairly early – probably always before summer, sometimes as early as Feb of that year.
What is the purpose of the visit? If it’s to get away from it all then fine, but if you intend to spend New Years eve or any evening, in a pub, think very carefully where you want to go. Also what do you want to do during the day? Number of Shops usually = 0. If you don’t like walking/outdoors it’s not going to be fun. You’ll probably need to go to one of the bigger centers.
What clothes do you intend to take – sometimes with log fires, the chimney doesn’t work very well and rooms can get smoky. Thick pajamas are usually essential. The bedrooms in Crask Inn permanently hovered around 6 degrees! Hat gloves, headtorch, boots, gore-tex jacket, fleece essential.
We’ve always cooked for ourselves (nearest takeaway usually 15+ miles away) and usually takes turns to cook for the night.
Roads in 2001/02 and 2003/04 were bad with a lot of snow and ice around. In 2001/02 there was the bizarre sight of seeing a snow-plough trapped in the snow awaiting rescue!! In Edinburgh/Glasgow and on the west coast there wasn’t a flake of snow. But the west is 3 times wetter than the east.
Don’t want to sound patronizing or trying to dampen any enthusiasm, but a cottage in Scotland will be nothing like Cork. My own opinion would be that you try to head for one of the centers (Aviemore, Fort William, Perth etc etc) rather then somewhere very isolated. It will be less physically beautiful but much more to do during the day and at night and you won’t be surrounded by each other all day every day!
posted by anton at 3:52 pm
7 Comments:
Thanks for the insight Anton. It's nice to get another side of the story. Ture people probably havent thought through all the small print yet, but then the dream is still a romantic one. I still think as long as there's a telly, and some electricity, then we can take a million games to play! Scene it, etc. We can take poker, monopoly (good for 72 hours of your life!), anything. The weather will be shit. So walking may not always be on the agenda. But knowing what types of clothes to take with you is an absolute bonus. No-one is under the illusion of having a big night in a club! but neither just 11 people and a barman in a small pokey pub!
I think a bit more research is required. Not least into a place with 2 toilets! One for ladies, one for men. I'm already hearing stories about mini "soiling the rim" in cork...
Rascle
Yeah I think we need to look for somewhere near some sort of civilisation. Maybe a village with a pub in within close walking distance at a minimum. I was thinking, and this may well have just been me, that we would do New Year in the cottage, and then maybe have a trip to the pub before/after New Year. Anyway I'll hopefully have a chance to have a scout around the web this week.
"I'm already hearing stories about mini "soiling the rim" in cork..."
I refute those allegations vehemently!!!
You will be hearing from my lawyer Mr Rascle!! :)
Just my thought, but the type of New Year evening could do with being agreed first. From talk and postings, it does sound as if people want the more usual Bramhall Rangers New Year, but in a cottage (i.e. Trivial Persuit etc).
Being honest, for me personally, staying in doing things like trivial pursuit doesn't hold the biggest attraction. This is not supposed to be a critisim, but there's a whole host of New Years in the pipework with this scheduled for when I've got kids, and a middle aged man.
Equally, if a cottage is picked "on the edge" of Edinburgh, the problem of Taxi's still happen.
A random suggestion might be to go to somewhere like Barcelona, or Portugal.
Still mulling it over anyway, thoughts welcome.
holy mary mother of god, shiz has all the money in the world!
But true, barcelona, madrid, lisbon, etc would be a diff night out. Tho again its a £300+ new year i imagine, and its still european weather! But its an attractive offer, if not a HUGE leap in cost from a £30 each cottage.
Not sure we said we'd be sat in on new years eve playing monopoly and stuff. It was something that could be done on other nights! And Wales and the Lake district have already been bandied about as possible, more pub enriched, locales.
Rascle - you seem to forget that Shiz is a high-flyer on his 40k a year. And that's before his share options, bonuses, golden hellos, company car....!!!
I think there is some creative accounting going on here.
Barcelona wouldn't be any more expensive than Cork, and although some people may well have spent £300, I didn't. So I'd estimate £200 should cover flight, accomdation, and modest eating & drinking.
Classing the cottage as £30 isn't a true reflection either, £100 would be fairer when you include transport to it, drinks, food etc.
Anyway, just an idea.
Just had the upgrade on my company car to a Jaguar. It's the latest model that has an anti theft device in that you can't see it if your stupid.
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