Back to the new normal!

We have now been back to business for a while, and the lockdown period has been relegated to the dim and distant past. Life has been hectic and I haven’t found the time recently to post anything!

Our self catering re opened on the 3rd July. This date came pretty quickly, as the hospitality industry was set to open on the 18th July, but they brought forward the date of the self catering. We rallied to the challenge and wanted to get our business back up and running as soon as we could.

It was nice to have a soft opening, and as our self catering wasn’t fully booked from the 3rd, we enjoyed letting guests back into Glengorm gently.

Dunara cottage

During the whole of the lockdown period, I was not keen to clean the main part of the castle. I kept it tidy but did not relish the prospect of dusting and hoovering until we were opening. Through lockdown, we managed to catch up with our redecorating work and some repairs, in the main bed and breakfast rooms and the Tower room apartment. It was not going to be a quick task getting the house reopened but with the help of Asha and Jodie we would get there.

We finally managed the get the majority of the Tower rooms wallpapered , and the results have been greatly admired.

The bed and breakfast opened on the 18th July. We had lost the majority of our bookings, but it didn’t take us long to fill back up again. Our cleaning regime has changed, disinfecting is the new way forward. Whilst we have tried to maintain the experience guests have here, it is all accompanied but some disinfectant wipes or hand sanitiser!

All of guests have been great. They have been very happy to comply with our requests and we have kept them all informed about what we are up to. We are fortunate that the Castle is large as social distancing is easier and it never feels too busy. The only main difference in staying here is at breakfast time, we have to stagger bookings and our buffet selection is sightly different.

For a while we have been trying to improve our signage to Glengorm. We have upgraded to purple, and we are all delighted with this new look.

Glengorm has remained busy all year, there has always been something going on. The farm quietens down a bit at the end of lambing, calving and clipping. Animals have been moved about just now and we have a selection of cows and calves grazing the roadside on the way up to the Castle. its a great opportunity for guests to get up close and personnel to the animals, but sometimes they get in the way!

The Coffee shop opened on the 6th July for outside seating and inside from the 15th July. Gail has been having a busy time since and is open day,y between 10 am and 5 pm.

The Gardens are also open and are operating an honesty box for purchases, and like ourselves, Sarah can be found at the producers markets in Tobermory on Mondays.

Its great to be open again. Being able to offer people a holiday has been great as we have such a higher proportion of domestic tourists this year. We have been having a good share of tourists from the continent, but this may change with lockdown restrictions changing frequently.

It would be lovely to be able to get to the end of the season without another lockdown, but whatever life chucks at us these days we have to just accept and get on with it. We are enjoying being busy and hope this will continue.