DIFFICULT LIVING IN THE HIGHLANDS IF YOU HAVE IDIOTS IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Imagine. You live in Mallaig, an historic busy little fishing port on the West coast opposite the Southern end of Skye.
You need to make a hospital visit to Inverness. Not too difficult, but it will take all day to go there and back. You get the early morning train to Fort William. Then you wait five minutes for the bus to Inverness at 7.30. No probs. Same kind of thing coming home.
Until the day when parents in a local school beside Loch Ness complained that this long running bus service got their children to school five minutes late. This needs the bus to leave earlier.
It obviously needs to be discussed with the local Transport Forum on which sit local people, plus the bus people and the local authority people.
But it wasn't discussed at all. Not with anyone. Somebody just decided to start the bus service to Inverness before the Mallaig train arrived!
They are not idiots really. Just idle. Don't think and don't care.
John

Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland

Spring breaks, March April May Glencoe

Last minute, late availability Glencoe, self catering cottage

The Vikings in Glencoe, the Terror, the Glencoe Battle

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WONDERFUL WONDERFUL CONDITIONS FOR SKIING. EAT YOUR HEART OUT SOCHI

Glencoe weather in the Winter has been wonderful by comparison with the rest of the country. Right now Glencoe is 600 miles to the North of where I am. Here, it is an amazing 9 degrees for February. It is exactly the same in Glencoe! Snow is at 1,000 feet, roads are clear. Spectacularly beautiful in the sunshine, and there has been sunshine.

TO-DAYS SNOW REPORTS. Feb 18 2014

GLENCOE
"Snow Level: 1000ft ft Vertical Runs: 2700ft ft
Lifts Operating: 6 of 7 Available Uplifts
Last Update 18/02/2014 at 12:20 pm

All lower and middle slopes have excellent cover of soft snow offering lovely skiing. Main Basin, Happy Valley and Rannoch Glades All Open. Runs totally irrelevant as so much snow you can ski everywhere and anywhere.... The Boys have done a great job overnight and the Main Basin T-bar is back in business ... What would we do without them, massive thanks boys"

NEVIS RANGE
Last update - Tue, 18 Feb 2014 07:55:54 GMT

Great sliding all over the mountain - wind packed fresh snow wetter on the lower area but not sticky. Grooming up well. Masses of snow everywhere and runs are irrelevant.

John

Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland

Spring breaks, March April May Glencoe

Last minute, late availability Glencoe, self catering cottage

The Vikings in Glencoe, the Terror, the Glencoe Battle

All the facts you need about Self Catering Scotland

The facts about Scottish rain

How to find your ideal self catering property on the internet

THE SELF CATERING GAME IS CHANGING

Is this the most photographed house in Scotland, just at the foot of Glencoe Mountain ski range?

We've had to alter our methods at the cottage. The market is changing rapidly. We must change, too.

Folks now want to go on holiday from any midweek day to any day, Google has ravaged small cottage searches with its new searching system, and the big directories have got their act together on the internet.

We used to be on Page one for "Glencoe Cottages" but now that page is full of Directories, most of whom are advertisers with Google. 

We used to be able to offer only Saturday to Saturday, get our website on page one of Google and fill up 40 weeks of the year. Now, if we go on as we have in the past we'll be lucky to let 25 weeks a year. 

People are using Trip Advisor, which has now swamped the VisitScotland agency. 

So with the help of our housekeeper Michelle, we have decided to offer the same daily £80 rate from the end of October to the end of April, just a minimum of 2 days. A week stay rate is heavily discounted to £350 for 7 days. We are not bothering to charge more at half terms holidays nor to increase the rate in March and again in April. 

But from May onwards we'll revert to weekly rates, from Saturday to Saturday. Having only one property we cannot offer the full range of daily possibilities, and a special cottage for pets, another for smokers. Hey ho, it is not a business luckily, we do it just to have our lovely little family cottage used more. Not fair to have Scotland holiday properties empty.   

John

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Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland

Spring breaks, March April May Glencoe

Last minute, late availability Glencoe, self catering cottage

The Vikings in Glencoe, the Terror, the Glencoe Battle

All the facts you need about Self Catering Scotland

The facts about Scottish rain

How to find your ideal self catering property on the internet