Cottage industry suits us just fine

At the end of last summer I made the decision to put one of the croft houses we have on to holiday lets. It wasn’t an easy choice at the time but the long-term rental market had legally become very costly in setting up tenancy agreements, so it seemed a lot of hassle for little return.

We had renovated the croft house named Fleuchary, which very aptly translates to wet pasture in Gaelic, back in 2013. I had researched the possibility of holiday lets at that time but was told by various agencies that I was too far off the tourist routes to make it work.

The massive upturn in visitor numbers to the north with the brilliant marketing of the North Coast 500 has changed all that. The route has its critics. You certainly need your wits about you when moving livestock on the road and allow yourself extra time if you’re travelling along the route, but it’s amazing to see the increased popularity of the north.

There’s more cafes opened to cater for the increased demand. Our village hall is undergoing a £400,000 rebuild

with toilets, showers, electric car charging points and chemical toilet disposal facilities for camper vans being provided and open to the public.

I’ve used an agency to let the property. They’ve been brilliant at holding my hand in this new venture. They manage all the bookings and market it through various platforms including Airbnb. To get up and running and get some reviews under my belt I’ve been prepared to take pets and do single-night occupancies.

The house has been marketed as a simple croft, situated on its own, overlooking Armadale Bay with the only neighbours being sheep, cattle and a few marauding red deer in the garden.

To my utter surprise, folk love it! The worrier in me thought it wasn’t going to be fancy enough and the lack of shops would be an issue but, to the contrary, that’s actually the attraction.

I leave a supply of essentials, including our own eggs, whisky and wine. The wood burning stove is set ready to be lit and the most popular item, which gets the best reviews, is my neighbour’s homemade gingerbread. Nobody has even mentioned how slow the internet is!

The weeks over lambing were blocked off as unavailable but I’m not going to lie and say it was easy doing changeovers while marking lambs, and still getting the odd lamb and calf when the property went back on in the middle of May.

Luckily my niece is now home from university for the summer and she’s taken on the changeovers. We also have a great local company which specialises in holiday let changes, so I call on them as well.

Despite the increased workload, this diversification has given our business a very welcome income during the lean summer months on a hill farm. June, July and August are full and the autumn bookings are coming in.

Already we are having return bookings and I loved sharing a wee bit of our heritage with our guests.

“The only neighbours being sheep, cattle and a few marauding red deer

The Armadale holiday cottage has been popular with tourists.