Tribute: Barry Dowson-Park
Barry Dowson-Park, an engineer by profession, and his wife Shirley, a public relations specialist, sold their “roses round the door” cottage in Sussex in spring 1999 and bought Foxholes Country Hotel at Lerags by Oban.
With no formal hotel training, they knew what they would want as an hotel guest and so set up an operation that met those desires.
I first stayed with them within a year of their arrival and was immediately struck by the warmth of the welcome, the superb food, accommodation and the friendliness extended to me. Shirley ran front of house arrangements, while Barry, as chef, produced a range of wonderfully cooked dinners with a relaxed professionalism.
Over the next 20 years I stayed at Foxholes every year, sometimes two or three times, as I explored and photographed the Hebrides.
I met other guests who also stayed several times a year, as Barry would tell me when I arrived. And as one of their first guests, Barry told me later that he considered me ‘a long-time regular’.
During these stays I built up a friendship with them both, which I cherish to this day. To arrive at Foxholes, after a 500mile ‘all in the same day’ drive from southern England, and be greeted with such warmth and friendliness was like arriving at ‘my secret little bit of heaven in
‘To arrive at Foxholes... was like arriving at my secret bit of heaven...’
the hills’.
Sadly, Shirley died in 2010, but Barry carried on undaunted, tailoring the operation to just his long-time regulars and any other guests recommended to him.
Interestingly, he was descended from Mungo Park, the 18th-century Scottish surgeon who charted the River Niger.
Barry was a quiet and very polite gentleman, who would go the extra mile if one of his guests or staff asked, including running a staff member to Glasgow airport when she needed to fly home suddenly to New Zealand for a family bereavement. In the last 11 years, my visits to Foxholes were the highlight of my annual trips to the Hebrides. More latterly joined by my wife, Barry excelled in making her stay as comfortable as possible and a rapport was soon created. Our friendship seemed to gain strength and I took a personal interest in all he wanted to do with Foxholes Hotel.
He loved fast cars and owned a Jaguar XKRS, which he used often to run into Oban when purchasing supplies for the hotel.
Unfortunately cancer got a hold of him a few years back but he persevered with a very sanguine attitude to his illness.
Barry died peacefully in his sleep on Monday November 29, aged 76.
For me it is the end of an era, a much enjoyable era in so many ways. He was the hallmark of a good friend as well as a superb hotelier, with a dignity of eye and bearing that one no longer expects to meet, save once or twice in a lifetime.