OUR FAMILY RUN HOLIDAY LODGES IN THE TROSSACHS

Our family has been at Lochend since 1958, when Grandma and Grandpa Abell set up a park for caravans. In 1974, their daughter Irene, and her husband, Jimmy Nairn, bought the place over, and put in the first self-catering chalets overlooking the Lake of Menteith.

Keeping the family tradition alive, Jimmy and Irene’s youngest son, Topher, bought the business upon their retirement in 1987, and in 1996, was joined by me, his sister, Victoria, and my husband Chris, a keen woodsman. In 2003, our cousin Kate MacKechnie joined the team, returning to Lochend after a childhood split between Africa and Kent. On the odd busy Saturday, mum and dad – Jimmy and Irene – can still be seen brandishing a cleaning cloth!

Not far from our lochside cabins, cottages and lodges, in what had been a piggery when Grandpa bought Lochend in 1962, the internationally acclaimed Cook School was established in 2000 by my brother, Nick Nairn. A stylish, state-of-the-art building and five-star visitor attraction, the Nick Nairn Cook School is well worth a visit when you’re here, if only for the small but dangerously tempting shop at reception.

From landscaping and gardening, to fencing and grass-cutting, we try to do as much maintenance as possible ourselves. However, having lived here at Lochend for over 50 years, we have an amazing troop of local tradesmen to call on when our basic skills let us down, as well as armies of keen Trossachs teenagers, who come in to clean at weekends.