raasay

 

 

 

Finally we are open and have had our first wave of guests...and what lovely guests they were too. The beautiful sounds of Bassoons and Bass Clarinets drifting through Raasay House and a lot of good cheer made our first week a busy but lovely experience. I'd be lying if I said that everything was as we would have liked for these, our first overnight guests but they all enjoyed themselves and were very patient with us. We now have a few days till our next large group, (40 adults at the weekend) so we are taking advantage of this time to tidy up some loose ends which over ran the tight schedule of 8 days between receiving keys to Raasay House and receiving our first guests. 

A quick rush around Raasay House

Such a gorgeous day on Raasay today and this morning I had a very quick look around Raasay House. I was so amazed by the way it's shaping up that it has put a smile on my face all day! Lots of work still to be done but you can really see the rooms coming together now. It's now so much easier to imagine what they will look like when all the great new furniture is in and they are all decorated beautifully.

 

A fine day indeed...but brrrrr cold

Looking good

One of the dining rooms with character showing through in the old flagstones which have been kept and restored where needed.

Main stairway with the specially re constructed elaborate balustrade in place (covered in protective wrapping while there is painting going on)

..a shifty creature I found scurrying around The House..actually it's just David Croy showing us how to really model a corridor ;)

Lovely sky lights in the corridor on the top floor make the hall light and airy and should show the stars off well too!

One of the Deluxe rooms at the front, very spacious, fabulous view...and wait till you see the decor!

Balcony lounge on the first floor. I can tell this will be popular space.

BIG Deluxe bathroom.

So there you have it. As you can see it's going to look great and the next 'redevelopment' blog post will probably be furniture and things being moved in! I'll keep you posted :)

 A new Raasay House chapter began when at  midnight on Weds 31st Oct we terminated our lease at the Hotel! 

I've just returned form an awesome tour round Raasay House. The place looks amazing and we're all getting very excited to see the the place finished. I've taken some pics so that all you folks can get excited too :D

Here's a good shot through the full length front window.

 

A look at the front...

..many shiny new pipes...

..lovely slab work at the bottom of the back stair. This stair has been added to give another fire exit.

 ..wireless fire alarms all over the building..Safety First!

 

..the kitchen, light and spacious

..upstairs deluxe bedroom view..

..the West Wing Hall was pretty untouched by the fire thankfully so the beautifully shaped ceiling is intact and this is going to be a fantastic function space..

 

..the back of the house..

..Freya peeks into the front door to check out the look of the entrance. I'll keep updating the blog whenever I can get in for a look around ( and I think I'll try to make that a lot because I think it's extremely exciting

 

Click on the 'Shop' button to buy a limited edition 'Raasay House Hotel & Activities' hoody. We'll be ordering new ones for next year so this is the only run of this particular kind. We don't have many left as they have gone really well this summer so get them while you can :)

Some more photos of Raasay House today. These are of some of the great interior work which is being carried out at the moment. This first picture shows the balustrade which has been recreated from remnants and photographs of the original. Before an exact replica could be made there was the painstaking job of measuring and gathering every detail about the feature in order to create a new cast a process that I'm told took about 3 weeks! Once this process was complete they could then start recreating the balustrade. This beautiful and elaborate feature has been painted with the exact colours which adorned it when Raasay House burned down. I can't wait to see it in installed. 

 

Another cool feature that is going in at the moment is the stone floor which is being put in along ground floor corridors. The slabs are made from Caithness stone and are being laid by KDL stone. Looking great!

 I'll keep the photos coming as the building develops. I think you'll all agree it's looking great so far.

 

Here is a photo I took at Raasay House yesterday. I was a bit to rainy to get a decent pic but as you can see the scaffold is half down, the windows are in and the front of the building is looking fantastic. The front lawn area has also been flattened and is being shaped back in preparation for being re seeded. It's all coming together brilliantly and the whole Mansell crew have being doing a great job to have the place finished by December this year. More updates to follow as work progresses. 

 

 

We're seeing less and less scaffold at Raasay House. It's going to be some place when it's finished :D...the view of course has never needed refurbishing/rebuilding ;)

 

One of our most popular dishes this year is the Seafood Casserole which is  topped with freshly caught local Langoustines.  

Our Smoked Salmon Salad is perfect for a light lunch in the sunshine with a chilled glass of Chardonnay.

Tender pieces of local Raasay Venison go towards making our Venison Casserole one of signature dishes and a constant favourite with our guests.

One thing I have noticed is that even when a guest claims to be full after two courses they always seem to manage one of our Chefs Homemade Warm Chocolate Brownies.........actually this blog is making me hungry. I'm off to speak nicely to the Chef ;)

 

 Since I’ve been living here (just over 2 years now) quite a number of my friends have travelled to visit me. The starting points vary between Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Aberdeen and I think just about every mode has been tried and tested. I’ve decided to do this wee blog to recommend some good cheap ways to get here because Raasay is just not as remote as you may first think.

From London

You can fly from London to Inverness for as little as £30 return at some off peak times of the year. www.easyjet.com.  Alternatively you can take a sleeper train which  can be fairly cheap if you book in advance using www.thetrainline.com. It’s possible to book 2 singles in advance and only have to shell out £70 in total. Not bad at all really and this means you can kip most of the way and be full of beans on arrival at Raasay! If you’re really strapped for cash you can grab a bargain at www.megabus.com . Although speaking from bitter experience I would not recommend such an epic Megabus jaunt. Twelve hours on a bus cramped up with 40 odd other people all trying to get comfy enough for some shut eye is not a relaxing experience.  I may have paid a squid but I but myself in a very grumpy state right before my holiday to India had even begun.

From Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen

I’d say all of these places are totally Megabus friendly. From all 3 it's only takes about 3 or 4 hours to get to Inverness but with standard advance tickets only costing a quid it’s possible to do this round trip for £2.50!!!!! You also have the option of going a bit posh and grabbing a Gold service ticket for a mere forty bucks return. This is good news if you’re partial to free sarnies, free coffee, extra leg room, fancier loos and a generally less scruffy fellow traveller ha ha. www.thetrainline.com is also great for cheapness on all three. You should check out the “Best Fare Finder” http://www.thetrainline.com/farefinder/ for super cheap advance single tickets from Glasgow  and Edinburgh to Inverness return for £21.80  and from Aberdeen for a little as £16.40 return! So cheap.

From Inverness

The next bit you need to think about is how to get from Inverness to Sconser. This is really easy peasy and involves booking a cheap advance ticket online at https://www.citylinkonlinesales.co.uk./ You can get the ticket texted to you and you can get cheap £4 tickets each way if you book even a week in advance sometimes. Citylink and Megabus seem to live symbiotically these days and you are actually booking the same no matter which site you use half the time but I would say that Megabus have cheaper rates on the main journeys and it’s worth breaking them up into two legs to save on pennies.

When you get to Sconser a 5  day return ferry ticket is about 6 quid for an adult, half that for a child under 15 and wee toots under 5 travel free.  You don’t need to book the ferry or get tickets in advance or any of that. If you are bringing a vehicle with I would say is a rather expensive way to get to Raasay unless you have a car full and split the fuel cost. I reckon it would cost about 60 quid round trip  from Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen and  about 200 quid from London round trip. A bit pricey if you are on your own but split 4 ways it's not a lot at all. not to mention tiring then I would consider ditching it at Sconser. The car park is a decent size and has a reputation of being a safe spot to leave you car for a few days. If you bring it you will set yourself back about 20 quid plus the passenger fare and really most places you want to get to on Raasay are walkable or bikeable and we’ve got bikes available for hire.

So you see, there is really no excuse not to treat your self to this awesome island (or visit meee pals ;) )

 A beautiful deer appears to keep a watchful eye over the rebuild. We can't wait for completion either Bambi!

Thank you to Alan Towns (Mansell Site Supervisor) for this picture

It was an exciting day for us here at Raasay House Hotel & Activities. Alister the man in charge of the rebuild project at Raasay House gave a guided tour of the site. It was an emotional experience to see the progress of the project and start to picture how the rooms will all look when it's finished. As a fairly new (under 3 years) member of staff it was very exciting for me to finally get to walk around the house with Lyn and Freya pointing out the different rooms giving me more of a sense of how amazing it is going to be when it's finished. We even got to look around the roof which is almost finished and the lead and slate work up there is really quite artful. 

The boys hard at work on a very muggy day-It was very hot up there!

The front of Raasay House 

The front entrance of Raasay House

Freya all safety togged up to go in for a closer look

First Floor front room- you can imagine how beautiful this is going to be...that view is as fantastic as ever!

One of the bedrooms :D

Men at work

Would you believe that this is only some of the chimney pots? I actually couldn't fit them all in shot!

A cool old stove which could use some TLC

More lovely roof work

..and again :)

It really was fantastic to see this amazing building being restored to it's former glory. I'll be grabbing pics when ever I can and keeping you updated on the great progress that Mansell and their subcontractors are making. Watch this space!!

The best seat in the house. Look at the wee Calmac ferry in the distance. Sums up Summer evenings on Raasay :)

 After a fresh new coat of paint and some TLC Oigh Niseach was ready to be launched again this year. As she was resting on a trailer and not in the bay it made more sense to employ a bit less elbow grease than usual and go for rope and revs instead.

 

Roof almost done? 

Same fantastic view and lovely shady places to hang out

 

  Work at the house continues and bit by bit the building is being re built. Here are some recent photos from the site.