News and Events

Nycos for Boys will sing in celebration of the Olympics

Sunday 27 May
6.00pm
Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling

Join NYCoS National Boys Choir for another outstanding performance of Going for Gold: a sports cantata.

The Choir of over 70 young singers will cover the themes of dedication, motivation and commitment while visiting the sports of Rowing, Track and Field, Aquatics and Cycling on the way.

Also taking part in the concert is NYCoS Stirling Choir (Youth Choir), directed by Anne Murphy.

To buy tickets follow the link at the end: Tickets are £12 for adults, £8 concessions and £4 for school children. http://www.nycos.co.uk/Nycos-Events/Concerts-Participation

Royal Highland Show 2012

Its hard to sum up this rural event on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Farming communities biggest date, but the food produce and demonstartions, the fashion retail and the premier livestock all contribute to make this a facinating event. Running 21-24th June tickets are cheaper bought online but you won't be able to see it all in one day! http://royalhighlandshow.org/

The Year of Creative Scotland 2012

From ground breaking visual art installations to humble woodturners (!) this is an exciting year for all sorts of artistic types to showcase their talents, in what we think is a fabulously inspiring country.
We already have some great festivals: Edinburgh International, Fringe and Film alone provide masses of entertainment, Pitenweem Arts festval, Rock Ness or Beladrum, Orkney's International Science festival (ok maybe a bit far to take a trip from Lochend!) but there is so much to see and do over the next year it'll be hard to fit it all in.
Here is a link to Visit Scotland's web pages about some of the events and we'll hand pick 1 a month and add it to the blog.
Exciting times in Scotland!
http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/inspirational/features/year-of-creative-scotland/

Newsletter Photo Competition Winners.

We're pleased to announce the winners of our Newsletter Photo comp winners; In first place, and coming to stay with us this Christmas, are Andy and Julie Wellings from Manchester, with this photo...

We then had 4 runners up, who each got a '£50 off a weeks stay' voucher and here they are...

Kath and John Ashton, High Peaks, with 'A Healthy Snack'!

Then Julie and Gordon Steele sent this family holiday picture which we've called 'Fully Active Holiday'!

Elaine Hughes sent this in from a few years ago but we still have 'Action Ducks' who still behave the same way!

And last, but by no means least, The McDonalds sent this picture which we've called 'Crossed Oars'

Although this was their other one which was a close second!

The Giant that framed the picture-window-view from Teal

I'm re-running the photos of the Scots Pine coming down for regular customers who missed the story first time!

Scot Pine Sadly has to come down.

The big scots Pine, which we think was about 150 years old, in front of "Teal", would have been planted under the instruction of Admiral Erskine, who owned Lochend as a second home, either here or Cardross was their choices (!!) to 'summer away from London'. He was also MP for Stirling at that time. He created what was known as The Admiral's Walk, which ran right across the shore line....it was his daily constitution to walk it!
Unfortunately it died and had become unsafe and so had to come down. Pictures on the right to show the event.

Our Park

Lochend Chalets has become a proud member of the 'OUR park' scheme which is helping to support vital works to conserve and enhance the landscape and wildlife of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park for us all to enjoy. We would like to ask you for your support too and give you the opportunity, when booking, to add a donation. We suggest a £1 per person in the party for your visit to the Trossachs. This kind of scheme has been running in the Lake District for several years with great results for community projects, which in turn, adds to the visitors' experience. We hope with such an amazing area of natural beauty that we can keep it that way. Any suggestions whilst here, or in the comments box whilst booking, as to the kind of projects you'd like to see in the area, are equally welcome and will be fed back to 'The Friends' committee. To find out more about the ongoing projects your donations will support go to: www.lochlomondtrossachs.org.uk

Stirling castle - The palace reopens

The newly refurbished Palace at Stirling Castle allows visitors to step into the astonishing richness of royal life in the 1500s.
James V's Palace at Stirling is one of the finest and best-preserved Renaissance buildings in Great Britain. Following a major programme of research and re-presentation, it can now be seen by visitors much as it may have looked on completion around 1545.
The decoration of the Palace's six main rooms is overwhelmingly colourful, rich and elaborate. James and his French wife Mary of Guise aimed to present themselves as wealthy, learned and sophisticated.
The decorative style belongs to the Renaissance - a great flowering in arts, literature and philosophy that revolutionised Europe in the 1400s and 1500s. Bright colours, expensive fabics and ornate patterns were essential elements.
But this was not flamboyance for its own sake. The decorative scheme was filled with messages about power, prosperity and plenty. It was not limited to the interior chambers but also extended to the exterior walls, embellished with hundreds of statues and other stone-carvings.

The port Primary kids came here for their summer outing and had a wonderful day. Stirling castle has a new manager and she's great!!
Cut and paste the following link to have oodles of info http://www.stirlingcastle.gov.uk/home.htm

Turning a green wood bowl from the Scots Pine.

Here is the journey of a 'lump of wood'...after the Scots Pine tree in front of 'Teal' came down, Chris was eager to get it on the lathe as he has been doing several pieces in green wood but all quite small...until now! From lump to rather beautiful bowl in a week!

Picture story to the on the right hand side - up the top!!

Spring Cleaning 2011

This year, with another international posse, we are into our second week of spring cleaning. This deep clean really sets us up for the year and already our 8 from Poland, Canada, Holland, New Zeland, Romania and Bulgaria are working incredibly hard with toothbrushes, biodgradable bleach, polish and paint!

And at last they can walk to work without slipping all over the place - I can even see blue sky!

Bobby Cameron has also started on our renewal of the "A" Apartments en-suite bathrooms, the will get new suites but now have a velux window which lets light in and you can see sky whilst bathing but we've double checked, nobody can see in!!
This will give these wee bathrooms much better ventilation too.

In these tight times we are doing what we consider the most important tasks but will also replace some carpets, white goods, curtains, bedding and beds/matresses in some chalets. Although we see alot ourselves, we are grateful for the feedback from our customers who have actually 'lived' in them.

Winter at Lochend.

Well...the snow has well and truly got us. On the first day of really heavy snow, we had a very intrepid wedding party arrive...they were not going to be stopped by 8 inches of snow!! Hopefully we'll get some pictures of that but hearty congratulations to Sandra and David.

Arnie, our big duck, along with all his other pals, have been kept going by the few visitors here and a big bag of seed left by the Davies!

And the lake is frozen right across....not for people yet but if the minus 10's keep up then skating at Christmas again?!!