Highland Perthshire start of the season newsletter for 2012

1

Good luck to us all in the 2009 Tourist Season. In the year of

The Homecoming

Explore Scotland – what has changed? Twelve months have passed since we last communicated through our Start of Season Newsletters and much has changed.

We now have 11 Explore area Guides, covering the following areas:-

Aberdeen Ayrshire & Arran Glasgow Highland Perthshire

Inverness Inverurie Loch Lomond & Trossachs Oban and Mull

Outer Hebrides St Andrews & East Fife Stirling & Falkirk

Watch this space!!

Dumfries &

Galloway to follow

Highland Perthshire Newsletter 2012

Inside this issue:

March/April 2012

Explore Scotland Ltd 01796 473335 The newsletter • Gives you the latest Inverness

tourist business news

• Written by the businesses themselves

Article page

Explore Scotland 1

Explore Scotland

Pitlochry in Bloom

2

2/3

Loch of the Lowes

Aberfeldy Watermillf

4

4

Pitlochry Fest Theatre

Cluny House Gardens

5

5

Inn on the Tay

Legends of Grandtully

6

6

Blair Castle

Blair Athol Distillery

7

7

Pitlochry Golf

Victoria’s Restaurant

8

8

Drummonds

Amor Cashmere etc

9

9

Food in the Park 10

Facebook to be …… 10

2

Explore web sites.

We have just completed the com-plete overhaul of the Explore web sites, using the latest technology available to maximise the impact and ease of use for visitors.

New features on ExploreScotland.net:-

Click on the interactive map to see the summary information on each area.

Transport section – includes the latest ‘Traffic Updates’ from Traffic Scotland.

Also on the Transport section –the latest Travel information Tweets from ‘Traffic Scotland’ ‘Travel Line’ and ‘Transport Scotland’ so you have one page you can check for all the traffic news.

New features on Explore area web sites:-

“Your Trip” planner – we believe is quite unique, it allows visitors to choose things they are interested in and drop them into their basket. They can then e-mail this or print off and bring it with them when they visit.

We know from accommodation providers, that if they can give their guests a link to the information on the website – guests will often ex-tend their stay when they realise how much there is available to see and do in the area. Our new web sites have been designed to help give visitors information in a user friendly way to encourage them to stay longer web site?

One accommodation provider told

us her average stay was over 4 nights, when the area average was just under 2 nights. She attributed this to providing them our Explore Guides with the confirmation of booking. She also said “Quite of-ten people do not realise how much there is to do and see here, and often wished they had allowed more time in their schedule.” W e w i l l b e w o r k i n g o n Explore-Highland-Perthshire.com this summer to bring it into line, with the rest of the Explore Network (see front cover).

What’s On – the most comprehen-sive What’s On for Highland Perthshire. Do you print them off for your guests?

Running an event?

E-mail details to:-

[email protected]

If you would like us to e-mail the What’s On at the start of each month, to you please tel l [email protected]

Explore Scotland — Websites have changed!

Page 2 Highland Perthshire Tourism Newsletter 2012

This is the Website to be ‘Seen On’

If you are interested in your business being

included, please contact

[email protected]

Or phone 01796 473335

Pitlochry In Bloom We have just opened Pitlochry’s newest Hotel in the Wildlife Garden and before you all panic, it’s for bugs and insects. A group from Pitlochry High School Nursery came along to furnish the bed-rooms in February and we are now open for business. The Hotel was spon-sored by Educational Cultural Ex-

change, our P2P Ambassadors pro-gramme and Lawrence Emerson, who also made it for us. Pitlochry High School and Breadalbane Academy S3 classes have been working since last year on a fantastic Poster Project, pro-ducing beautiful artwork which will go on display in the Atholl Centre in May.

From this a new Mural will be produced for the North-bound Station Waiting Room in preparation for the celebra-tions in 2013 of the 150th opening of the Highland Mainline. Various ideas are in the pipeline, but good ones are always welcome!

3

Pitlochry was again a finalist in the “Champion of Champions” in Britain in Bloom last year. From 1,000 entrants, only five communities were cho-sen by the RHS to represent the very best in Britain, three were from Perthshire. The RHS cam-paign judges towns, villages and cities UK wide on Horticulture, Environment and Community Participation. Last year brought our fourth Gold medal from the RHS.

Pitlochry also won the Tayside Trophy for the beautiful War Memorial & Gar-dens from the RBLS. Congratulations to Aldour Court & Gardens for their sec-ond Level 5 award in the “It’s Your Neighbourhood” campaign, a non-competitive judging organised by Beau-tifulScotland. A new campaign by Keep Scotland Beautiful instigated by John Yellowlees resulted in a first Gold for Pitlochry Station.

We had quite a struggle last year with the weather and financially! So we will have to pull our belts in, no major com-petition entries for us in 2012, although we did receive an invite from Communi-ties in Bloom, which we regretfully had to decline. We also need to spend a year doing maintenance, the cleaning of the War Memorial by P&KC is high on our list, as it is covered in green moss, hiding the beautiful Rubislaw granite. Also the benches need replacing in the Petit Jardin opposite the Scout Hut, and that involves taking down the walls, a big job. It is very unlikely we will be able

to afford to put up the floral displays on the Victorian arcades this year as so few of the shops underneath are able to sponsor them and we cannot subsidise them and the ones on the lamp-posts.

Last year Pitlochry Litter Action Group carried out a planned lit-ter-pick on the last Thursday of the month, from March until October. The equipment and hi-viz vests were paid for by the Scottish Co-op Community Fund and we thank them for that. Some of the team went the extra mile litter picking early in the morning on our judging day in August.

The group have already begun this year in February as the weather was so

much better and will continue thru to the Autumn. Any helpers always wel-comed.

Events thru the summer include the famous Green Park Hotel Coffee Morn-ing on 23rd June and our very success-ful Secret Gardens Day, which sees local gardens open to the public, on Sunday 5th August. For updated infor-mation please check our diary page on www.pitlochryinbloom.co.uk

We are, as ever, really grateful to all those businesses who support us, whether financially or putting on their own beautiful floral displays. They are very much appreciated by our visitors, so we hope we will all be able to keep Pitlochry the clean and green destina-tion it has become. And that the finan-cial downturn will not affect us and you too much more in 2012. We wish you all a good Season and surely some sun-shine will come our way this year!

“We have just opened

Pitlochry’s newest Hotel in the Wildlife

Garden ”

Pitlochry In Bloom cont.

Page 3 March/April 2012

The Country Bakery, Dunkeld This Coffee Shop & Takeaway has been operated by the current owners since 2006. Prior to that, they had run a suc-cessful restaurant in Braemar, collect-

ing a number of nationally recognised awards along the way. The business ethos is simple – good quality food, fast efficient service and

at a price to suit all pockets. As well as the regu-lar “sit-in” and “takeaway” menus, The Country Bak-ery offers a range of out-side catering and private party options – from “stovies-in-a-field-for-60-people” to“breakfast-for-a-group-of-12-fishermen-at-5am”.

All full time staff hold recognised catering

qualifications and the owners come from a long line of craft bakers. All

vegetarian products, cakes and scones are made daily on the premises – all meat products, bread and rolls are made daily by Gowrie Bakers in Blairgowrie. If you are planning a special event or a celebration meal, ask us

about our hand made speciality breads – with 24 hours advance notice, we will hand make focaccia, ciabatta, olive and sun dried tomato breads, flat breads …..in fact, any type of speciality bread you require.

www.countrybakerydunkeld.co.uk, 01350 727343,

[email protected]

“Open 7 days, closed

January.”

4

The Scottish Wildlife Trusts Loch of the Lowes Centre.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre, situated just out-side Dunkeld, will once again be open-ing its doors to thousands of osprey & wildlife fans from right across the UK. Famed in recent years as home to the UK’s oldest known osprey, affection-ately known as ‘Lady’, staff and volun-teers are waiting with baited breath to see whether she returns to breed this

spring for an incredible 22nd consecu-tive season. Regardless of whether she makes it back visitors are in for a treat, with pin-sharp high definition views of the osprey eyrie from the visitor centre and the stun-ning lochside panorama from the observation hides – a mere 200 metres from the nest tree.

Often overlooked by visitors, close-up encounters with red squirrels and a veritable feast of woodland birds are afforded from the large viewing window that looks out onto our feeding station. We are particularly keen for accommo-dation providers to highlight this to their guests as we look to turn Loch of the

Lowes into a year-round tourist destina-tion. New for 2012, we have a Wildlife Interpreter, Lindsey, who will be based in the observation hides, providing com-mentary on the comings and goings at the osprey eyrie and highlighting the

other fascinating wetland wild-life. Lindsey will be working alongside the visitor centre staff; Jonathan, Cherry, Michael & David to ensure that all visi-tors have the best possible ex-perience indoors and out. A full

programme of family events is planned th ro ug hou t the yea r . Go to www.scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/events-and-activities/ for details.


Aberfeldy Watermill Bookshop, Café, Homeware ……..

Aberfeldy Watermill Bookshop, Café, Homeware & Gallery.

Our vision has been to create a place that inspires, where visitors can spend half a day. The Watermill, which won the award for UK Independent Book-shop of the Year in 2009, has three floors of books, art & music and a café serving fine teas, coffee and light meals. Next door is Homer, which fea-

tures quality homeware and gifts alongside pieces of vintage furni-ture.

Our book selection includes plenty of ‘holiday reading’, a dedicated children’s room and also a selection of high quality ‘coffee table’ books that custom-ers are welcome to browse.

In our café we serve coffees and teas made to the highest stan-

dards, with all our staff attending ba-rista training courses. Our cakes are made locally and our light lunches are freshly made to order.

Our events programme of book sign-ings, children’s storytimes and art exhi-bitions is featured on our website

www.aberfeldywatermill.com, which is regularly updated.

On ‘Trip Advisor’ our rating is over 4.5/5, with typical reviewers confirming our aspiration that visitors could spend ‘a couple of hours’ or ‘an afternoon’ having a coffee and browsing.

The Watermill and Homer are in the middle of Aberfeldy (just off the main street) and have car parking to the rear. Both are open 10am – 5pm (11am Sunday) seven days a week. Tel 01887 822896.

“close-up encounters

with red squirrels ”

Image by Neil McDonald

Image by Bryan Turnbull

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With the first three Summer shows now rehearsing side-by-side, it's not only creative teams and members of the acting company and that are in over-drive at Pitlochry Festival Theatre! If you were to visit the stage, the wardrobe department and the workshops, you'd discover carpenters, scenic artists and costume makers (amongst many, many others) all busily preparing for curtain up on the 61st Summer Season at the Theatre in the Hills.

Sometimes, I think those of us in-volved in Tourism in Perthshire are guilty of forgetting just how fantastic and unique this place is. PFT does theatrical spectacle on a grand scale, everyday of the week, throughout the length of the Summer. And don’t take my word for it either, The Herald in 2011 positioned PFT like this:

“The stylistic equivalent of a West End producing theatre set against a picture-postcard backdrop of rolling Perthshire hills”

A great descriptor which all businesses that are in the tourism trade should use to encourage people to come and stay in the area, and of course, see a show! PFT is a major reason why people love coming to Pitlochry and it’s a major reason why many return, year after year. Not only to enjoy our unique rep system which allows your guests and

visitors to see different plays over sev-eral days, performed by the same group of actors, but also for the West End quality of our large and detailed sets and spectacular costumes.

I’m always keen to explore how we can work together with other visitor attrac-tions and accommodation providers of all sizes to help people ‘Escape to Perthshire’. Get in touch and get in-volved!

Giles Conisbee Head Of Marketing

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Now that John has retired from teach-ing completely, the two of us are full-time in the garden. John would actually say “I’m only doing my hobby” despite this involving at least six very long days of hard graft! We also have Fiona part-time doing an excellent job helping with the propagation during the season and tidying up during the winter months.

This spring we are having two events which we hope will be informative and different.

Saturday 14th April 10.00 to 11.30. Behind the scenes at Cluny and a tour of the garden at early Trillium time. £5/person, £1/child under 16. Please tele-phone 01887 820795 or email [email protected] to book. Saturday 12th May 10.00 to 11.30. Guided tour of Cluny as it reaches its peak for candelabra primulas and early meconopsis. £5/person, £1/child un-der 16. Contact as above. The best time of day to view the red squirrels feeding on a mixture of nuts is when the garden opens at 10am or late in the afternoon. They tend to enjoy a snooze in the middle of the day!

The following are monthly highlights at Cluny:

April: trilliums, erythroniums, helle-bores, early primulas.

May: candelabra primulas, me-

conopsis, rhododendrons, ari-saemas.

June; meconopsis, cande-

labra primulas, lilies, arisaemas.

July: lilies, giant Himala-

yan lily, Chilean flame flower, ligularia.

August: late lilies, hydran-

geas, autumn crocus, fungi.

September: autumn crocus, cycla-

men, the start of autumn col-our, fungi.

October: spectacular autumn col-

our of many different trees and shrubs.

Wendy & John Mattingley

Pitlochry Festival Theatre—All systems Go!

Cluny House Gardens


“This spring we are

having two events which we hope will

be informative and different”.

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Inn on the Tay

The Inn on the Tay is located at the spectacular setting of Grandtully rapids in one of the most memorable venues for a dining experience anywhere on the Banks of the Tay. Our customers can watch Olympian canoeists practis-ing or wild water rafters enjoying the ride as they sit in the comfort of our highly regarded 56-seater restaurant relaxing over a coffee or enjoying a meal.

Using seasonal and, where possible, local ingredients cooked sim-ply with care and passion by our Head Chef Gavin and his team, we serve food all day. We have been recognised as one of the Top Inns in Scot-land to Stay by the Sunday Times, a high accolade and one we are very proud of as we continue to maintain our own exacting high standards.

To embrace our stunning location, we have a spectacular extension of exter-nal decking offering incredible views of the River Tay and a children’s play area.

We are situated on walking and cycling routes and both walkers and cyclists are made to feel most welcome after or during their

exertions. We extend our friendly wel-come to dogs who are allowed in the Bar and on the Decking. We also provide free Wi-Fi internet access and free car parking.


Iain Burnett The Highland Chocolatier & Legends Iain Burnett The Highland Chocolatier and Legends of Grandtully are set in some of the most beautiful scenery in Highland Perthshire, on the banks of the River Tay.

The business is in its fifth year of trad-ing but has already achieved a very high profile amongst tourists, locals and the elite food industry. It has also achieved a number of National and International awards and received 4 Star rating from Visit Scotland.

There is a delightful and magical Coffee and Chocolate house that serves light lunches with scrumptious cakes and one of the best cups of coffee in the area.

Presenting unusual gifts, clothing, jew-ellery and homewares in elegant show-rooms with professional merchandising along side the unique award winning Scottish Chocolate Centre, a FREE exhi-bition of gourmet chocolate from plant to plate, explaining the harvesting, fer-mentation and conching of this superb cocoa from the small island of Sao Tome. Chocolate Tastings, including a peek into the chocolate kitchens, are available by prior appointment by book-ing at 01887 840775.

Iain is an Artisan Gourmet Chocolatier

of quite rare quality and the only choco-latier to produce a unique offering in the Western Hemisphere. We are based in Grandtully, near Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire, Scotland and supply Michelin star and 5 star chefs with an outstanding Cocoa Dusted Vel-vet Truffle.

He has a very select client base which includes amongst others Claridges, The Lanesborough, Gleneagles, The Old Course, The Royal Scotsman train, Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road in London etc., we also supply Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh and The Perth Deli at McEwens.

It is not only the texture but also the flavour pro-file of this amazing co-coa from Sao Tome, mixed with Scottish cream, that has it stand-ing out from all other of-ferings on

the European market. We produce a full range of both fresh enrobed and un-

enrobed chocolates, own label choco-late bon-bons, a full range of ambient products such as Florentines, Rolled in Chocolate and Bars and a succulent range of Candied Fruits dipped in chocolate.

Winners of: Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards for Food Service Product of the Year 2009 3 Gold Stars in the Great Taste Awards 2010 5 awards in The Academy of Chocolate Awards 2011 Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards for Food & Drink Tourism 2011

Thanks to the development of his own elegant packaging, he is now able to share with all his customers the out-standing textures and flavours created in this gourmet range of chocolates – freshly and elegantly hand-crafted with natural local ingredients at a price which is not elitist. For more informa-tion, please visit our websites: www.LegendsofGrandtully.com

www.HighlandChocolatier.com

Grandtully, Between Pitlochry and Aber-feldy. Highland Perthshire. PH9 0PL Tel: 01887 840 775

“located at the

spectacular setting of Grandtully

rapids”.

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Blair Castle Nineteen generations of Stewarts and Murrays of Atholl have all left their mark on Blair Castle, its col-lections and historic grounds and in 2012 the changes continue as the Clocktower has been fully re-stored following the fire last March.

Mo Tracey, Castle Head Guide and her team will take you on a journey into the fascinating past of the Dukes and Earls of Atholl and in this jubilee year learn how the visit of Queen Victoria led to the creation of Europe’s only surviv-ing private army. Why not take the chance to see the Atholl Highlanders at their annual parade and gathering on 26th & 27th May.

To see more of our Highland working estate follow the 30 miles of waymarked trails, 50 miles of cycle routes or join an expert guide with over 50 years of experience of the estate on a Landrover Safari . For a traditional adventure, see the sights from the back of a sure-footed Highland

pony on a gentle trek or a faster ride.

Then from 23rd to 26th August we host Blair Castle International Horse Trials and Country Fair; Scotland's leading equestrian event, attracting in excess of 40,000 visitors watching Olympic medallists compete alongside

amateurs in the four Interna-tional event classes.

During our winter weekend openings we welcome you with a warming dram and you can enjoy Sunday lunch in the magnificent Ballroom. In December Hercules Gar-dens’ folly hosts Santa for all of the family to enjoy.


Blair Athol Distillery Pitlochry A Warm Welcome awaits you at Bell’s Blair Athol Distillery in Pitlochry

Our enhanced tours are currently doing extremely well with more and more of our visitors looking to spend extra time learning the differences of all the won-derful whiskies that we stock. Listed below is a note of our enhanced tours. Prices can be found on our website www.discovering-disti l leries.com/blairathol

FLORA AND FAUNA TOUR - Private tour and tasting of our Blair Athol 12 Year Old Single Malt plus a further 2 Single Malts from the Flora Fauna Range. Minimum numbers 4 - Maximum num-bers 18.

ALLT DOUR DELUXE TOUR - Private tour and tutored tasting of our Blair Athol 12 Year Old Single Malt, our Cask Strength Blair Athol drawn direct from the cask and 4 further "Drams" from our Whisky Treasure Trove. Minimum numbers 4 – Maximum numbers 8.

As in previous years we would like to

invite all accommodation providers, local businesses and all their staff to a complimentary tour of the distillery fol-lowed by a dram of Blair Athol 12 Year Old Single Malt. We would also like to offer complimentary tutored whisky tastings to our local bar staff to allow them to speak more knowledgeably about whisky. This offer is open all year so please send any new recruits along throughout the season.

2012-Opening Hours

January to Easter Mon – Fri 10.00am - 4.00pm*

(*Silent Season-19th March until 30th

March 2012.Please note that there

may be further alterations to these

dates. Due to the nature of the work

being carried out during our silent sea-

son, distillery tours will be unlikely to

take place. The Distillery shop however

is expected to remain open from 10am

until 4.00pm except for Monday 19th,

Tuesday 20th and Thursday 22nd

March 2012 when we will be fully

closed)

Easter to October Mon – Sunday

10.00am-5.00pm*

July & August only - open until 5.30pm

(*closed Sunday 29th April, Sunday

13th May, Sunday 20th May)

November and December Mon – Fri 10.00am - 4.00pm

Festive Tour Times

Restricted opening – please telephone

in advance to confirm tour times or visit

our website. Last Tour 1 hour before

closing

A d v e r s e W e a t h e r C o n d i t i o n s

In the event of adverse weather condi-

tions the site may be closed to ensure

the Health & Safety of our employees

and our Visitors. Every possible effort

will be made to contact pre-booked

visits. We would however ask that you

visit our website if you are in any doubt.

Tel 01796 482003 or e.mail us on

[email protected]

Jill Scougall, Blair Athol Distillery, Perth Road, Pitlochry, PH16 5LY Tel 01796 482003 [email protected]

“Nineteen generations of Stewarts and

Murrays of Atholl have all left their mark

on Blair Castle”.

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Pitlochry Golf

Pitlochry Golf is fast becoming one of the finest inland golfing facilities in Scotland and we welcome everyone to be a part of our great golfing experi-ence – from the fantastic course with sweeping views of the Tummel Valley to our state of the art clubhouse serving great food and drink – delivering fan-tastic service and value.

Wonderful Wednesdays are open to all- an open competition every Wednesday from 4th April until 10th October. Only £10 entry includes green fee and sta-bleford entry if you have a registered CONGU handicap but non handicap golfers are welcome for a £10 green fee.

We have packages available with special deals for groups of 8 or more and our Sunday Driver 4 ball that includes golf and Sunday carvery for only £99 be-tween 12noon and 4pm every Sunday Pitlochry Golf Week run-

ning this year from June 9th – 15th is packed with lessons, activities and entertainment. Entry fee is only £139.00 p.p

The Ladies Highland Open takes place from 9th- 13th July and the Gents from 4th – 10th August. These competitions comprise events on and off the course- it makes for a complete golfing experience.

The Clubhouse Bar & Restaurant has proved to be very popular with golfers, visiting parties, local families and tourists. The large wooden decking area has been a great attraction where you can

relax in the sunshine away from the traffic of the town centre and enjoy the views of Ben- Y - Vrackie With the exciting news that we have the

go ahead for our centre for excellence, work will get under way this Autumn on a 7 bay covered driving range and practice area which will give us the best facilities in Perthshire. At Pitlochry Golf there is

always something happening on and off the course and we are open to every-body- no need to be a member.


“With the exciting news that we have the go ahead for our centre

for excellence”.

As the season approaches, we're get-ting ready here at Victoria's Restaurant for another fantastic year ahead. The spring flowers are out in their abun-dance and the terrace is ready and wait ing for the coming good weather. We can't wait for the normal bustle of Pitlochry in full swing.

Diners at Victoria's Restaurant tell us time and time again that we are one of t h e b e s t p l a c e s t o e a t i n Pitlochry. We're lucky to have such wonderful customers, both new to Vic-toria's and regular, and it's great to get recognition for all the hard work, plan-ning and passion that we put into the business.

As always, we're open from 10AM through to 9PM every day. We're sure you'll tell your customers, but as a wee reminder, we offer a mix of brunch stop

& coffee-house during the mornings (think delicious lattes' & cappuccinos' with delectable home-baked cakes & scones), a great place to lunch or laze with a coffee and a paper in the af-ternoon and then at night the restaurant transforms into a

chic evening eatery where you can sam-ple the best of Perthshire & Scotland on a plate.

What makes us stand out from the rest? Our people. We think our staff are some of the best and friendliest in Perthshire. Nothing is too much trouble and we're always ready with a welcome smile and a professional attitude.

2011 was a good year for Victoria's and huge credit for this is down to all the

local businesses who continually sup-port and refer custom to us. May we take a moment to give our sincerest thanks and to say that we're looking forward to working with you over the season ahead. As always, you're wel-come any time for a coffee and a catch up.

We're nothing without our ambassa-dors! A happy diner, with a great ex-perience to share, will tell the world why they should visit Victoria's. If you're new to Victoria's, we look forward to adding you to our list of ambassadors.

We hope to see you at Victoria's Res-taurant soon!

Victoria’s Restaurant

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Drummonds Restaurant and Public House Geordie and Mags Drummond would like to welcome you to Drummonds in Ferry Road, Pitlochry (the road that runs from Atholl Road beside Pitlochry War Memorial). The Drummonds family started the business in 1999, it is a family business in every sense of the word, in that there is always at least one member of the family on the prem-ises at all times.

Now in to 13th year, the business has steadily built up, as folk get to know the simple affordable home from home cooking, ‘Just as your Mum would cook it”, everything is cooked to order using Scottish produce at all times.

What makes Drummonds different?

• It has a private car park for pa-

trons (no town car park fees).

• Dog owners in the summer have a gazibo with table and chairs – to allow dog owners to have a quiet social drink or meal with-out having to put the dog in the car.

• Walkers, Cyclists, Bikers are all welcome.

• Children are welcome – special children’s menu £5 include juice, main meal and home made Italian Ice cream. They can also choose half portions off the main menu.

• Half portions 3 course senior citizen meal for £7.50

• Coach parties welcome.

• Draughts available:- McEwans Export, Tenants Larger Beer, Guinness and Strongbow Cider.

• A choice of Cairngorm Brewery Award winning bottled real ales.

• Wine sold by the bottle/glass.

• Summer Car boot sale every Sunday from 25th March – all

proceeds go to the Pitlochry Youth Club Project. A stall £10 per pitch. You can donate items to Geordie at Drummonds.

Fife Mining Heritage - Geordie and Mags are proud descendents of Fife miners, both their fathers worked in the pits. In remembrance of the Scottish mining heritage and their own families Fife mining history, Drummonds has a whole range of mining memorabilia from original mining paints, to miners lamps, canary’s cage, limited edition miners commemorative plates, to coal figures depicting mining scenes. Geor-die says the collection has attracted a lot of comments from visitors and lo-cals, with items being added to the col-lection by past miners and their fami-lies all the time.


Amor Cashmere & Tweed Your invitation to Amor Cashmere and Tweed in Pitlochry. The shop opened last summer bringing a fresh take on ladies and gents Tweed and Cashmere.

Whether you are looking for casual wear or something for a formal occa-sion, Amor Cashmere and Tweed in Pitlochry have created a collection to inspire, with many unique exclusive items for both ladies and gents.

Cashmere and Tweed in a fresh new style aimed at anyone 20 years of age

and older. A carefully chosen exclusive range of Cashmere and Tweed from leading established quality branded suppliers.

The Amor Cashmere range is from sup-pliers such as Peter Scott, John Lang Hawick Cashmere, Beggs of Scotland, Joshua Ellis all leading brands. There are also a range of carefully chosen items from other quality Cashmere sup-pliers of scarves, throws, shawls, scrape …...

The Amor Tweed range is supplied by Harris Tweed and range of original Donegal Tweed from Magee, for ladies and gents clothing, jackets, trousers, skirts, waste coats, hand bags, wallets, man bags, I-pad covers, gloves, gents tweed caps and more.

The Amor Home furnishings are from some of the very finest names in British textile industry, such as Beggs, Bronte and Joshua Ellis, brands established in

1837, supplying items such as throws, cushions and fabric, which you can buy by the metre.

The Amor footwear is supplied by Loakes and Joseph Cheaney who have been making handcrafted shoes, with quality and comfort in mind, in the fac-tory in Northampton since 1880.

You no longer have to go to the high streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow for your quality Cashmere and Tweed. Drop in to Amor Cashmere and Tweed

Amor Cashmere and Tweed is at the Blair Atholl end of Pitlochry’s main street, 123 Atholl Road, Pitlochry PH16 5AG. Tel: 01796 472202

10

Food in the Park—Blair Atholl

Food in the Park is a unique Chippy, Pizza Restaurant, Coffee House and take-away, open from 11am until 8pm from 30th March 2012. Nestled into the edge of woodland, a stone’s throw from the River Tilt in the centre of Blair Atholl, our friendly, family-focussed establishment welcomes eve-ryone from weary walkers, pad-dlers and mountain bikers needing refreshments and an energy boost to families look-ing for a friendly place to have lunch or dinner. Dave and Sally invite you to enjoy the ‘best Fish Tea in Scotland’ or

a magnificent pizza from our choice of 12, a delicious homemade soup or a fair trade coffee and one of our gor-geous cakes. If you’re just after a snack, why not pop in for a bacon roll or half a pizza? Take-away service is on offer day and night and you can call us to order whenever you want!

Ample parking available, eat in or sit outside in one of our two alfresco areas with views of the river and mountains. We also have a large garden ideal for kids to run around in and work up an appetite!

NEW this year is our BBQ Chicken Pizza and the fa-mous ‘Smosage’… perfect with chips! Or why not in-dulge yourself with our new ‘Steak Ciabatta’?!

EXCITING NEWS!!! With Blair Atholl becoming the official Southern Gateway to the to

the Cairngorms National Park, the new Information Hub, Car Park and Rangers Centre are now being constructed on

our doorstep! This is the first phase of two large projects taking place which will see the car park being extended, the grounds being landscaped, an ‘Information Hub’ being erected for visitors and a modern toilet facility be-ing constructed. Why not pop down to see the new-look area, due for comple-tion in June 2012, and pop in to Food in the Park for a coffee or snack after-wards?!

Again this year you will find our colour-ful Yo! Frooty kiosk in the garden of the restaurant, serving the best frozen yo-ghurt and smoothies money can buy! Enjoy as a refreshing, healthy snack or treat yourself to one as a dessert after your lunch or Fish supper!

Food in the Park is open from 11am until 8pm from 30th March to November 2012 – phone orders welcome on: 01796 481484


FaceBook to be bigger than Google! All the pundits, indeed Google itself acknowledges that FaceBook will, in the long term be more important than Google. Google tried to buy FaceBook, having failed, launched Google+, their FaceBook equivalent.

Any business not on FaceBook is loos-ing out!

FaceBook does not cost anything, other than a small amount of time and or-ganisation each day. If you want to get started on FaceBook we have a sheet we can e-mail you, taking you through the basic steps to get you started.

So what is FaceBook – for those not involved?

How many of you have read the news-paper horror stories (remember news-papers have a vested interested in FaceBook not working, as their sales continue to drop). I say ‘A long time ago there was a thing you bought called a newspaper. The paper was full of sto-ries some you were interested in some you were not. Depending on which pa-per you bought the stories were skewed to the left or to the right. Well today we have FaceBook, you choose what you are interested in and ‘Like’ that busi-ness, football team, your local butcher etc. So when they write something on their FaceBook Wall it comes to you, no one twisting the story. You choose what you are interested in and FaceBook

does the rest. Your customers will be interested in your business too. Face-Book is an easy affordable way of keep-ing them up to date.

Explore FaceBook – keep up to date with your area news.

We now have FaceBook and Twitter

and are actively communicating and promoting your area of Scotland. So please join us and lets work together and tell as many people as possible what a great area it is.

http://www.facebook.com/Highland.Perthshire

“EXCITING NEWS!!! With Blair Atholl

becoming the official Southern Gateway to the to the Cairngorms National Park”.

Highland Perthshire start of the season newsletter for 2012

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