inshriach

Dr. Andy hosted a whisky tasting last week for Balvenie. I have held myself out as local knowledge in the past but had never been to a proper tasting and this was very informative, all vanilla notes and leather and oak and spice. Andy has agreed to run tastings at the house, including one for the proposed bushcraft and foraging weeks in August, and he wants in on the Outsider festival.

We had a garden furniture haul yesterday, a bit of a barter gained us a suitable steel frame to go over the dry stone spit roasting pit, plus 60 or so pretty metal garden chairs. Its a few too many for daily use so clusters have wandered to scenic spots in the woods but we can herd them back for garden parties on the lawn once the Outsider stage is finished. Anyone who was wondering where to take their brass band or string quartet on holiday now has an answer.

The last weekend of June is the Outsider festival on Rothiemurchus, the next estate along from Inshriach. A little gang of us are pitching to run the bars, have a say in the line up, organise our own tent and run lovely catering with local food. Its not certain yet but we have got ahead by building this bar.

Thanks to Captain Bob for adding to the slow team after deciding I needed his big grey landrover more than he did.

I’m going to digress from Inshriach business here then try to drag a point back out of it at the end. ‘While you are down south, you wouldn’t mind checking out a campervan’ is how the Bedf-odyssey started. Friday morning Charlie and I stood on the south coast before an old english white Bedford with orange go faster stripes, 1972 in the year and exceptional in the detail. Money changed hands and the three of us trundled off to a lovely, sunny, pub lunch fuelled weekend in the New Forest.

But there was the second leg to consider and it would take more than go faster stripes. Portsmouth to Aviemore, solo, via Brighton and London, with a whole 47 mph under my right foot. Every SLOW sign in the road was a personal acknowledgement.

It was time to recalibrate. We left London on B roads, avoiding any routes I had used before. We parped through the villages of Hertfordshire and across the flat lands of Lincolnshire (where I think we were overtaken by a lawnmower), then crossed the Humber bridge into Yorkshire, meandered up the coast and under the Tyne into Northumberland, cross country via Coldstream to Edinburgh, across the Forth then through the forests of Perthshire and into the still snowcapped highlands. What an amazing journey. If we hadn’t been doing 47 on obscure roads we would never have seen the prosperous Georgian sandstones of Stamford, the silhouette of Whitby Abbey, sunset over the amusement arcades and grand Victorian hotels of Scarborough or the craggy, hunkered houses of the Northumberland moors. We would never have been through Shingay cum Wendy or Sandy’s Letch or Luncarty. I would not have seen Henry, Dee and little Louis in Brighton, had a lovely weekend with Charlie or bumped into Gwennie in Yorkshire.

I never thought I would be an advocate for sloth but it has been a magic few days. If anyone needs a tuk tuk or preferably a vintage Rolls Royce brought north I can help. The Bedford has come to live next door to Inshriach. We might tune it up a bit. It belongs to Ross and Polly from Ord Ban and if you ask them nicely they will arrange the tastiest and most leisurely picnic ever.

I’m sure there’s a moral in there somewhere.

We have started by turning the beds in the vegetable garden and working our way through the alphabet of desirable vegetables, herbs and flowers. So far we have only really decided that swedes and turnips are not that exciting, and that we want most of the rest of nature’s bounty. We have worked out a planting scheme based on wisdom gleaned solely from books with the words ‘Easy’ and ‘Vegetable’ in the title, built a few glazed frames and planted a some seeds. Watch this space.

This leads us neatly onto 2 weeks in August we have allocated for Bushcraft courses. For a maximum of 12 people these courses will include guided hillwalking, a 2 day open canoe trip down the Spey back to Inshriach, wild foods, shelter and outdoor cooking, probably a whisky tasting and most importantly, be fully catered by our favourite chef, Allan, using food from the vegetable garden, foraged food and local meat and game. 2nd to the 8th August and 9th to the 15th, £575 per head inclusive, anyone up for it can drop me an email on [email protected].

Thanks to Rory and some bits left over from Raven this unconventional stile now guides guests round the cottages and to the squash court.

The Scottish leg of Centurion, Neil Marshalls ‘swords and sandals’ thriller, finished filming last week. I found myself in the unusual position, as local fixer, of not having to make anything. The crew and extras numbered well over 100 people on some days in conditions from spectacular to extremely challenging. Without giving too much away you can expect plenty of blood, imaginitively spilled, and some very big scenery. After a similar photo appeared in the local paper I give you the 9th legion, slipping effortlessly into character by being cold, exposed, reluctant and 1200 years too early for North Face.

Now the esteemed members of the East Harsley pantomine players are in the house for a long weekend of murder mystery so the quality theatrics are expected to continue.

With spring coming our minds are turning to all things outdoors. I had a chat yesterday with Malcolm Handoll from Five Senses in Orkney about bushcraft, navigating by the stars and shelter building, as well as dry stone walling and building traditional stone structures inspired by the cleits of St Kilda. This morning Richard Strivens from Wilderness Experiences came for a walk round the woods and a chat about residential courses that could include bushcraft, wild foods, canoeing and mountaineering. We will be picking weeks out later this year to offer individual places or can arrange private guidance for groups already booked.

We also have the vegetable gardens to contend with. Inshriach has a large kitchen garden which was expertly brought back to life by Euan and Sulekha who lived here until recently and ran their business, Northern Greens, from the gardens, supplying local restaurants and doing veg boxes. The aim is to offer food for guests in the house, and feed ourselves, but a crash course in vegetation is required before we can make any promises. Anyone who can lend some advice or wants to be involved would be very welcome.

The production of the swede coincided with a lift in the weather so, between duties on Centurion, the in house prop department got busy refashioning some of the left overs from last year. I’m particularly pleased with this Japanese looking bridge whipped up from Raven props and we have the ingredients for another to be placed somewhere equally pointless.