Welcome for walkers and pub-goers
Hospitality and tourism businesses along the West Highland Way, who have had to adapt during lockdown, are looking forward to welcoming back walkers.
The Beech Tree Inn at Dumgoyne, around 7.5miles from the start of the route, usually provides a welcome stop for walkers.
But at the start of the lockdown owner Lynne Alldritt decided to turn the restaurant into a click and collect grocery service.
She said:“We were inspired to do this as we saw how difficult it was for people to get essentials, especially elderly people in our villages, and how hard it was to get delivery from big supermarkets.
“We are also working hard on transforming the beer garden so that we can have pre-booked customers in for food and drinks, with socially distanced tables and hand sanitising areas.”
Rena Baillie who manages Tyndrum tourism business Strathfillan Wigwams, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, has found several ways to keep busy during lockdown.
Firstly, bedsheets from Kirkton Farmhouse, rented out alongside the wigwams, were given a new lease of life as gowns for NHS district nurses in Glasgow.
Rena said:“Our group of five women made 70 gowns of which 18 were made by myself on a 1958 Singer sewing machine. Fiona from Glenorchy Farm also came up with the idea for a flour hub when it became difficult to source from supermarkets.”
The Real Food Café has been closed since March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic but owners Sarah Heward and Alan McColm, will welcome their first customers back on Thursday, July 23, as a contactless drive through restaurant, using its car park and the adjacent car park as the‘front of house’.