Mull Wild life tours, from Glencoe and Appin

This is one of Richard Atkinson's pics - I stole it, hope you don't mind Richard. I'll give it back if you do.

Mull Wild Life tours. link below.

We had this lovely email from a client recently

Hello John. Thought I'd let you know about our stay in your cottage. First off thanks so much for all the info. It was so so helpful. We had great fun finding some of the walks and getting in a muddle. Lots of coffee in Crafts & Things. We had brill weather unlike down south which got completely rain clobbered.


We went on the wildlife safari on Mull which was very very good. Managed to watch golden eagles cruising around then resting up by their nest.Watched two sea eagles over the loch and one swooped down and had a battle taking a duck off the water. Bit worrying as the the eagle looked as though it was getting into trouble and obviously very worrying for the duck. Bad news for the duck as the eagle managed to lift off and go up into the trees.

Also had a great view of a couple of otters playing around as they ate some eels. Watched them for quite a while. I managed to get a finger slammed in the van door while we were over there and it was a mad dash for the first aid kit to strap me up. I was very brave though and didn't make to much fuss.

Actually I was worried about the sheep everywhere. Not only because the drivers didn't seem to make allowances for the babies right by the side of the road and also because it was just so craggy and scary and anything to do with babies and animals is a biggy for me. Had to avert my eyes a couple of times. We saw lots of different birds on Mull and our man Richard picked up on everything.

The name has been left off to protect the innocent.
Here is Richard Atkinson's website address. Wonderful tours, everyone says the same. He will pick you up at Fishnish ferry terminal, so you can leave your car this side and go as foot passengers. Calmac hate it, but we love it because it saves a lot of money. Don't go to Oban to catch the ferry, go across the little Corran ferry near us then drive down to Lochaline  - beautiful run. Ferries are frequent from there.
Mull Wild life Tours

John
Our own links:
Brilliant wild life around our cottage
20 brilliant walks around our cottage area
Easy hill walks in Glencoe
Why not walk up Ben Nevis one day?
Easier Munroe walks in Glencoe
Rock and Ice climbing in Glencoe
Cycling and fishing Glencoe
Golf in the Highlands, Dragons tooth golf course, Glencoe
Cruising the islands, using Glencoe as a base
Safe, beautiful beaches and bays in Glencoe area
Touring the Highlands by car from Glencoe,
Spring breaks, March April May Glencoe
Winter breaks, Jan Feb March in the cottage
Autumn breaks November December in the cottage

Fabulous February weather in Glencoe. Oh yes, entirely possible. Cottage offer

Cottage breaks in February. Short break £199, one week £295, sleeps 4 all mod cons
These are the normal rates, but we will cut them in half for you for some dates.

Click here for availability Feb/Mar/Apl

Feb 1st Fri short break, and Feb 12 Mon short break at half price. Only to readers of this blog.
Email us and put "Half Price Offer" in the Subject line, then we'll know. kentalleninfo@ yahoo.co.uk

Better than January, less wet than November and December, less rain, more daylight, this is the weather in Glencoe in February. The weather in Kentallen is considerably better even than this. Wet gets dumped in the Glen but usually it must come over the mountains behind the cottage from the South-west. When the weather is bad in our bay, we go west to Ardnamuchan. Doesn't always work but more often than not it does.

When it is sunny in February, it takes your breath away. It is such a joy to be alive.

Feb 1955. Imagine a lad of 20, just out of National Service. Motor bike broken down, - there used to be a garage by the Ballachulish hotel. They order up a part from Norton in Birmingham- remember Norton? - it comes via AA road patrols within 24 hours. Wow!


Meanwhile, said young chap decides to pop up the Aonach Eagach ridge. Not the cleverest thing to do solo, maybe, but on the other hand he's climbed for four years, done the Alps, the Cuillins, North Wales, left a note of where he was going, the usual stuff. Health and Safety would have something to say to-day, so would other busybodies. ("Yes, it is all very well, John, but you put the lives of others at risk, too") Yeah right. You've got one life to live in this world. So have they. I'd be grateful but it is their decision too. ("Yes, John but what about the cost of patching you up, broken limbs, brain damage?") Ok if you want to win that much, you win, I give in.
The weather was totally stunning. Blue sky all round, slight wind. Stretch out you arms and you touch the Three Sisters, to the South East is the Blackmount, Ben Cruachan a bit to the South in the distance, Schiehallion a long way away but looking very proud to the East, to the North, the Mamores nearby, then Ben Nevis and the Aonachs, to the West the lovely area of Morven. It is an image that remained in the young man's mind for the next 54 years. You know what, these scenes are recalled from memory, and I've probably got it wrong a bit, but the image was so powerful.

(Anyway, he didn't do all of the ridge, because he was not a total idiot, up to the top and down again. Don't solo the whole ridge in Winter. You'll terrify yourself and probably die. Unless you are really good, that is. The Ice Factor people could do it)
Sunshine in Scotland in February is no less than 28 hours more than in January, virtually double. Not this year perhaps, because January has been brilliant against the average. Only an average of 14 days of rain as well in February. There is over 10% more daylight as well.
The problem is the cold particularly up high. It gets colder by 2 c degrees for every 1,000 feet you climb. The top of Bidean is 8 c degrees colder than sea level. The annual average air temperature there is –0.3 c degrees. The coldest months are January and February, once the snow falls then it stays widely on the tops until April. But the lowest temperatures in Scotland are inland and not on the West Coast.
The real trouble with height is the wind chill. As the wind rises over the hills it increases in power. In January you have 7 hours of daylight. It takes 7 hours to get to the top of Ben Nevis and back down, and you need to allow at least a spare hour in case of trouble. So start before dawn. Ugh! The temperature at the top, with a strong wind can be -20 or worse. Bidean at 1150m is slightly lower than Ben Nevis at 1344m but not all that much.
Try high level walking. It is wonderful. Otherwise crash out at the Clachaig, swap mountain stories with others, and hope it is going to clear.
John

ps Oh, and you can get a weekend break, or a midweek break in our lovely little lochside cottage about 4 miles from Glencoe. The weather is often less wild there at Kentallen.

Skiing Glencoe and Nevis range, cottage is midway between the two


Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland

Last minute, late availability Glencoe, self catering cottage

Spring breaks, March April May Glencoe

Winter breaks in the cottage

Weather in the mountains of Glencoe

The Viking battle in Glencoe

The true story of the Glencoe massacre

Weather month by month in the area

HOW DID VISITSCOTLAND GET INTO THIS STATE?

On a hot day in June, Gillian and I thought to stay on Tiree for a few days. We had heard about it so often on the weather forecasts, we just wondered....

We got a Scottish Tourist Board catalogue. The Island looked nice. The book showed three self catering properties and a couple of hotels - one of them on Coll I think.

We didn't think there would be much to choose between the islands, silly us. we were young and ignorant. It was 1978 after all.

There were only three ways to find B&Bs or self catering in those days. You sent off for the Scottish Tourist board (later VisitScotland) catalogue or you called in at one of their many Tourist offices around the country. Their catalogues were then, and are to-day beautfiully designed. The third way was to go there and take pot luck in finding somewhere. That's more my style, but not Gills. We had a lovely time.

I've just looked up Coll and Tiree on the VS website. Two hotels and one self-catering. Both islands together. Then I looked up the community website for Tiree alone. 18 self catering owners and many more properties.

VisitScotland had done nothing wrong to lose that share of the market. The market shattered into fragments.

They lost their monopoly on accommodation, because more and more property owners started to do their own marketing using the web. As a visitor to-day you can still take the VS catalogue, you can still respond to small ads in the Travel Sections of the papers, you can still get referrals from friends, and pick up leaflets, you can still drive past and hope for luck - well, not for self catering maybe, but for B&B certainly. But the proportion of visitors doing things in this traditional way is getting smaller by the minute. One large modern commercial holiday facility with a world-wide reputation reports that only 17% of its business involves "literature" For them, and for most, past users and referrals are still big, but the biggest is the web.

Even the web itself is fragmented. You can find agencies which will book you into properties, charging owners from 25% to 35% and making a surcharge on the buyers as well. VS does this, but at lower cost. Owners often don't like agencies. We got shot of the only one we ever used within six months.

You can find directories which list the property details and the website together with photos and you can contact the owners direct. For this owners only need simple and cheap websites but the owners rely heavily on three or four listing directories plus repeats and referrals.

You can find community sites where everyone gets together for marketing their
area. Or you can search Google or Yahoo and find property owners websites for yourselves.

I love it. I've spent 53 years full time at the highest levels of marketing, around the world and I've never ever imagined a medium so rich, so quick, so responsive to ideas.

I made a change to our website last week and already I am excited to see the initial response. Last week? The web is wiping out industries as we speak and will wipe out more. VS was caught in the turmoil.

It is no good owners complaining that VS does not get them as many bookings as they feel it should. It can't. I can list our site openly on Undiscoveredscotland.com for about £70 a year, and also give them our late availability weeks to push. If they get me only three bookings a year that is an ad cost of under 4%. Sign up to three or four others and I'm in business with that kind of cost ratio. I'd still rather get my own visitors.

Are visitors who use VS happy with the grading facilities? I think they are very happy indeed in the main. We use it ourselves to find B&Bs, (but we do not book through it) My pal booked a two week tour of Scotland for four people through it, and each of us was very happy with the properties.

But practically all owner-members have complaints about VS, and these days if VS inspectors start getting stroppy with what they want, then owners tend to shrug their shoulders and
leave. When they do so they tell everyone they know about it, so the rot spreads.

The VS marketing and the grading systems need re-engineering. At one time so did ship building, textiles, gas lighting, candlestick makers, monocles, coal mines, horse and carriages, peat gathering, girdles, snuff taking, musket balls, right back to flint knapping. It never comes back in the way it was.

I'll suggest how to re-engineer in another piece.
John Winkler
bayviewkentallen.co.uk

Lochside cottage near Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland
Fort William and the accommodation to the South
Last minute, late availability Glencoe, self catering cottage
Honeymoon cottages in Scotland
Weather in the mountains of Glencoe
Cottages Scotland and Coastal cottages
Scotland, how to find them
Weather month by month in the area
Last minute, short breaks, in Scotland, owners sites direct
Scotlands weather misconceptions
Facts about self catering holidays
Short holiday breaks, special last minute deals, self catering Scotland
Special self catering offers in Scotland
Advice on driving in Scotland
Skiing in Glencoe