Are our Scots cousins as welcoming as we are? Aye!
From breathtaking scenery to top-drawer customer service, Eddie Coffey discovered on a family trip to Scotland that it’s the simple touches that make a short break very memorable
There are times when neither a picture nor a thousand words suffice. Experiences that are that little bit too special to sum up in either format.
After a little break in Scotland recently I had that difficulty when I was trying to capture certain aspects of the trip – scenery and setting in one case and customer service on another.
One of those was our first stop… It was just outside Portpatrick on the west coast of Scotland. The app on the phone suggested it was just 25 minutes from Cairnryan, where the ferry had docked. We set off south from the port and quickly came into the kind of country roads more familiar to my childhood in rural Co. Galway.
We’re talking hairpin turns and grass-in-the-middle-of-the-road kind of terrain.
After 20 minutes, we seem to be further away from civilisation than ever and our only company seems to be thousands of highland sheep in field after field.
I’m beginning to lose faith in the app’s directions and that little bit of tension is creeping into the car’s atmosphere. I’m getting quizzical looks. Do I have any notion whatsoever where I’m going? Eventually, after a few vertigo-inducing turns, we take a final sweep around a sharp bend and this inlet of beauty opens up in front of us. The phone announces: you have reached your destination.
Knockinaam Lodge is set on 30 acres of landscaped grounds stretching down to its own private beach. It’s a small country house hotel on a patch of greenery that seems as if it’s cut out of the rocks at the back of the site. The welcome is hearty and helpful and you’re immediately in the mood to kick back and relax. It has more the vibe of a retreat than a hotel. We had the girls of seven and four with us and they were delighted to see the beach and the playground within easy reach. Happy days!
The connecting rooms are probably the most ideal set-up for a family we’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. The two rooms are divided by the bathroom, so we have the security of proximity with the ability to watch the TV or chat without disturbing badly needed sleep.
The food there is top-notch and the children are looked after early, giving them plenty of time to play.
Because Knockinaam Lodge is on the coast be prepared to drive if you want other activities. But within driving distance there’s all manner of good stuff… for the
children, there’s the Cocoabean Company where they make their own sweets and we all enjoy them afterwards! There’s also a playground that keeps them active for at least an hour.
We take a spin to Wigtown, home (or so they claim) to Scotland’s largest second-hand book shop, named simply enough, The Book Shop. It’s one of those places in which you just get lost. Even if you have the children in tow, they also tend to disappear as there are books to suit every possible taste for every possible age. We emerge, God knows how long later, with a bunch of children’s and golf tomes, wishing this place was on our doorstep 365 days a year. There’d never be a cow milked!
Until I reached this neck of the Scottish woods, my concept of stargazing didn’t stretch much further than the red carpet at the Oscars. But there’s a thriving little community in these parts who like to look at the sky at night.
On a number of fronts, I had my doubts about this when it was offered to us by the people at Knockinaam. I had never been taken with the stars throughout my sheltered childhood and I assumed that my youngest offspring would be similarly unimpressed.
Not for the first time in my parental journey thus far, I was out by the side of it. The prospect of dressing up in their coats, attaching special torches to their foreheads and heading out into the dark of night is one of the highlights of their trip. A few months on, they still talk about it.
We are in the hands of a very experienced operator, of course. Elizabeth Tindal is a biosphere and dark sky ranger. Which means she knows what’s going on up there and she’s able to transfer her passion to those in her company of a dark evening. I am very slow to admit how wrong I was but it has to be done. We have great craic peering at the sky.
The second time I am bowled over on this trip to the point where a picture doesn’t really sum it up is when we move our entourage to Edinburgh and we rock up at The Balmoral Hotel, on Princes Street, bang in the middle of the city.
What strikes me here is how seemingly simple it is to get things right. A small example: when we filled out the booking form, they asked us what age the children were. Standard practice, I reckoned – they have to know who’s coming at them.
When we get there, though, it becomes clear that they weren’t just asking for the sake of it. There are two books left on the girls’ beds… one for age seven, one for age four.
There are two pairs of standardissue hotel slippers – but they, too, are age-specific.
Two very simple touches that make such a good impression. Someone in that outfit has their head screwed on.
It wasn’t just those magical touches that’ll impress you about The Balmoral. Okay, it’s not cheap, but if you’re making an occasion of it, it’s very much worth it. The food is from the top drawer and, again, the children are looked after very well with a human touch that makes parents feel at home.
The staff are also very helpful when we seek recommendations about what to do in town with children of a certain age. The girls are instantly taken with their suggestions of Dynamic Earth and Camera Obscura – two places where you could spend a great couple of hours or, indeed, days!
Edinburgh has a great advantage in that most of what you’d want to see on a quick visit is within a walk of the city centre. It’s a lovely looking city and we are taken with how welcoming all of the staff in shops and restaurants seem to be. It’s a sad reflection on today’s world that this has to be pointed out but, as we all know, good, friendly customer service is a rare find. You’ll see lots of it in Edinburgh.
Scotland is not in everyone’s top five places to visit. If, like some of us, you’re a golf fan, then it’s right up there. But, for a short trip across, either by air or by water, it’s very much underrated here. As I discover on this trip, there are completely different experiences available and the people are much more like us than we (or they, I suspect) like to admit. It’s a place that made me feel very much at home and I intend to be back.