Hello, and welcome to 2014 at Carradale Cottages.  Just to show you what a warm balmy climate it is down here, these are the first snowdrops from Colin's garden which will soon have a carpet of them.  As people walk past they all have a sneaky look through the gate because they are quite renowned.  Colin was very pleased with his snowdrops and when we took over the cottage and sorted the garden we had to make sure they remained .

Well, bookings are coming in thick and fast this year. If you are an old hand you would note that we have actually REDUCED our prices - in line with a lot of other people.Well, times are hard for us all and we'd rather have the cottages occupied than bleakly empty.

Cath, our wonderful cottage lady, has moved on from the village so Alan (better known as Neilly) has taken over. Years of working in the hotel have given him an excellent grounding and you will not notice any slip in standards.  We hope to do a bit of re-curtaining and things over the next month or two,

Carradale is much improved by the re-opening of The Glen bar and restaurant.  Now run by a couple of real professionals it looks super inside (they admit there's still much to do outside so don't be put off) and the food is excellent and easy prices.  A wonderful addition to the place which we must all support.  On the down side Angie has had to cut her opening hours in the shop but as no one on holiday gets up before eleven anyway, it shouldn't affect you.  And in the summer a new slip is to be built down at the harbour, so bring your boats as well as your golf clubs!

You will be a bit taken aback as you drive down the back road.  A super sub station is being built north of Carradale and fairly massive works are going on to take all the wind power off to Ayrshire.  We are battling with the contractors to make the sure the road  is always kept open, and at least they promise us nice big new lay-bys.  It's all a bit of an upheaval but we have little say in the matter and we just need to make sure that no-one is inconvenienced.

And finally the goats on the Point.  They are in good form - soon to be producing lots of kids as  they give birth early in the year. Mike took this picture with my brand new Olympus film camera!  Well, I'm sure I'm not alone in not being able to work digital.  More exciting, some of our Christmas visitors were able to watch 3 otters playing for ages in the the grass out there which is a wee challenge for you.

Right, get those bookings in - web site is always kept up to date and we try and get confirmations off as soon as possible now we've got going for the year.