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Dunnet
Head Outdoor Activities, Walking, Fishing, WildlifeWatching at the most northerly point of the UK mainland! |
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Dunnet
Head Outdoor Activities, Walking, Fishing, WildlifeWatching at the most northerly point of the UK mainland! |
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Issue 1 - May 2001 - produced monthly
Welcome to all our customers for the new season! We hope that the new opening hours have not inconvenienced our regular customers too much, and that you can continue to visit us as you did in previous years.
Well, what can I say about our first winter in the far north? I am ashamed to say that I migrated south to work in not so sunny Staines as Project Support Office Manager for DHL Courier Company. Brian was left to cope with the vagaries of the weather and maintenance of this beautiful old property.
I did deign to visit a few times including at Christmas and New Year when the snow actually settled on Dunnet Head for the first time in many years - it is normally horizontal snow which just keeps going across the Head driven by winds of up to 120mph! It was a magnificent sight - you can see more pictures on our web site in the restaurant - ask Marjorie. The files are stored locally so you do not need to connect to the Internet, hence no charge!
Richard, my old hunter, wintered at livery in Achalone, Halkirk, with Marion Bain and fared well in his first winter, emerging as fresh and energetic as ever. He is now back at home and enjoying the company of Callum Bain's first pony, Mouse, a Welsh Section A mare, also in her 20's.
We spent a well earned rest in Spain for 10 days before returning to Scotland to open up for the season. Business has been slow to date due to the foot and mouth epidemic. The Scottish Tourist Board (STB) and Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board (HOST) have launched several marketing initiatives designed to draw people back to this magnificent part of the country. However, we have already welcomed some delightful visitors this year, including Justine Brown and her son, Stuart, her brother, Adrian, and his wife, Gill, complete with two very well behaved dogs. Justine and co. "found" us by chance last year, and we hope to welcome them back to Dunnet Head in years to come. Other interested guests have included an Irishman, Jason Kelly from Aberdeen University, a geologist doing a PhD study of the rock formations around Dunnet Head, and a couple hell bent on buying up an old property on Orkney for renovation.
Those of you who are familiar with the property will have noticed a few changes, not least the vastly extended car park. Well, don't get too excited, the site is destined for Brian's shed later in the year, planning permission permitting. The fields, which drained well after last year's work on them, have been ploughed and reseeded and hopefully will be refenced by the end of the year.
The "tearooms" is currently having an image crisis, as we now refer to it as a "restaurant", more in keeping with the wide range of fayre we have to offer. Marjorie and I have indeed been exercising our culinary talents and have already had a very successful Spanish night with Spanish cuisine and atmosphere. Traditional Spanish food was served, including tapas, chilli prawns, paella and "orange surprise" - ask Marjorie for the recipe for the latter! All this was washed down with copious amounts of sangria.
We also had a Mexican night which was not so well attended, but the food was no less delicious (even though we say so ourselves!). That night we served guacamole, spicy courgettes, chili con carne and Mexican fruit salad, an exotic mixture of passion fruit, papaya, mangoes and pineapple. Just to prove that we can cook cakes, Marjorie whipped up an impressive array of carrot cakes, Orkney fruit cakes, ginger cakes, marble cakes and date and walnut cakes, and stacks of butterfly buns for the Pony Club car boot sale held on 20th May. I also attended the sale and cooked an untold number of cheeseburgers, burgers, soup and hot and cold drinks. What our next venture will be - who knows? Watch this space!
Rumour has it……
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……….They're
back - puffins on the Head!
photo by Frank Garnett taken some years ago, and for which we hold the copyright! Postcards 15p each. |
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