Some of you may have seen Glenan Lodge featured on ‘A Place in the Sun, Home or Away’ on January 2nd. Yes, we did consider selling last year – Rob thought he’d like to have a pub with letting accommodation and a restaurant – but we soon changed our minds. However, during that time we were approached by Channel 4 and agreed to take part in the programme. To those of you who might be concerned that Glenan Lodge has changed hands – it hasn’t – we are still here and look forward to seeing you again.

So, as I said, we had a really good season in 2005 starting in mid April and not ending until mid November which is late for this part of Scotland. Many of our guests were people who had visited before both since we took over in 2003 and also many years and 3 or 4 owners ago. We are particularly delighted to welcome back guests who stopped coming 10 or more years ago but who have now decided to ‘give us a try’ – what is even more satisfying is that many of those guests booked for 2006 before they left in 2005.

We were also delighted when Jason and Kellie Evans chose to stay at Glenan Lodge in the days leading up to and the night of their August wedding on a boat cruising Loch Ness. We wish them every happiness – perhaps they will come back for their anniversary??

Sadly, once again, water levels in the river were low for much of the season so few fish were caught before the end of September – must be global warming giving us hotter and drier summers and wetter and milder winters so that there is little or no snow left after mid April. This winter, apart from a couple of inches in November we didn’t get any snow until 28th February. It’s made up for it since, however, and, in fact, it snowed today which will top up the already good conditions up on Cairngorm Mountain and should mean that there is still good skiing or snowboarding for Easter. We still have vacancies for Easter week so why not dust off the skis or snowboard and take a well-earned break??

Since I last wrote to you we have been able to source rough shooting for pheasant, hare etc. during the autumn and also deer stalking. We do have to fit in with the respective estates but if any of you are interested please drop us an email with your preferred dates and we’ll see what we can do. Ideal groups are 6 to 10 for the rough shooting and the price is £150 per gun per day (inclusive of VAT) plus the usual B & B rate.

Talking of B & B rates, sadly the huge increase in the price of oil in the past couple of years has forced us very reluctantly to increase our prices by £1 per person per night to £26. We do believe that this still represents great value for money. Most of the bedrooms have now been redecorated and have new bedding, towels, and curtains.

On 26th March this year Scotland introduced a blanket ban on smoking in enclosed public places. As you know Glenan Lodge has operated a no-smoking policy ever since Rob & I took over in 2003 so we were ahead of the game on this.

I will aim to write to you again in the summer with more news from Glenan Lodge but, if I don’t manage to, please bear with me because it means we’re too busy!!!!