Do any of you know anything about this B&B? I'm taking a Rabbies tour to the isle of Skye and this is the one they are going to put me it. I read some reviews some good some bad but the most recent one was 2014.
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Teani,
I assume that you are looking at the TA reviews? In generally the place looks fine to me. You have one reviewer who found her tone frosty. Well, the Scots can be a bit starchy at times. And this is obviously a place run by an older couple. They have been doing it for 35 years! There was a great book I read on running a B&B in Scotland and all the different types of people you encounter as hosts and as guests. It really sounds to me like the Singaporeans got off to a very bad start and it went down hill from there. Too bad for both hosts and guests.
There is a great story that my friend Carol likes to tell about a B&B hostess in Strathpeffer with whom she often put guests from her walking tours. I stayed there one week with two young many from eastern Germany. Our tours would leave in the morning at 9 AM and the plan was always that we would be back in time for dinner--breakfast and dinner were included. Dinner was at 7 PM. During my week we were always back well before 5--plenty of time for a shower, catch up on your photos and have an ale in the pub before dinner! But, there was one year, when Carol's boss, Sandy, took the group all the way to Applecross for a hike. It's a long drive in the best of times, but something went wrong. When Sandy pulled up at 7:30 in the mini bus with the walkers, the hostess was standing outside waiting. Dinner was ruined. She couldn't possibly serve. Here were some pounds. Go eat in the pub! My only personal experience was when I did laundry in the bathroom. She asked me hence forth to use the drying room for all the things that I rinsed out!
B&B Hostess in places like Skye and Strathpeffer don't just get touristy tourists. They also get walkers and climbers and people with messy dirty gear. And many of them cope with it quite well. Others, as I said, can be a bit starchy. It is their home after all.
Pam
Posted by
OP
Alabama
86 posts
Thanks Pam
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
I'm not sure why a review from 2014 would be considered so old. It's only March 2015 now, after all. Anyway, I stayed in a B&B in northern Scotland a year ago, and we had a somewhat stern landlady with a LOT of rules. At first we were a bit put off by her manner, but our Scottish friends said that's just how people from the Highlands are (and this lady was 82). After a couple of days, once we had gotten to know her a bit better, we could laugh at some of the things she said, and many of the rules went away once she got to know us, too.
Posted by
New York City, NY, USA
5678 posts
Nancy, you nailed. That is just what the older ladies in the highlands can be like! Did you ever read Anne of Green Gables? I think that Marilla Cuthbert came from a long line of Highland ladies. Upon further research, of course Lucy Maud Montgomery was raised by two Scottish Presbyterian ministers herself!
Pam
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7354 posts
Our Skye B&B owner last August, who had an English accent as he was raised in England, but was born in Scotland and had come home to run a B&B, had just two rules: keep the front door shut so the midges couldn't get in, and leave any muddy/grimy footwear on the tray in the foyer.
Skye is fantastic!