So we’ve made it to the end of another year. I’ll be honest with you, it’s not been the beginning of the Roaring 20s that I’d hoped for. My flapper dress will just have to wait for a while. But we HAVE made it, and we’re hugely grateful for your support, kindness and all round positivity.

With the reintroduction of distancing and table service our capacity for Hogmanay celebrations has been significantly reduced and we are fully booked. We do have some tables available for the 1st and 2nd of January but booking is essential.

We are then closed, for a rest we feel is well deserved, until February 2022. We plan to be open Fridays and Saturdays for February and March, with some special Sunday events. You know as well as I do that things may well change – so keep an eye on our web page and socials. Also please keep everything crossed for us.

Here’s to a special 2022 for us all. Brighter times ahead.

Just to reassure you – from the TA family x

Before you arrive, you will receive an email from us which will help us to make your check in, check out and the time you spend with us as simple as possible.
You will be asked to confirm that you and your household are Covid 19 symptom free. If you have symptoms you will be asked to cancel your booking. If you arrive presenting symptoms or develop symptoms during your stay you will be asked to return home.
We ask you to let us know as accurately as you can what time you’ll be checking in. Check in is contactless and paperless.

On arrival
If you need help with your luggage when please let us know before hand so we can have the necessary precautions in place.
Everyone will have their temperature taken by touch free forehead thermometer when they arrive.

While you are here we know that you will wash your hands regularly, please also use the hand sanitisers that are to be found throughout the hotel.
You will be given my mobile number so if you need anything during your stay you can let me know without having to have contact (if you prefer)
The dining room and bar area are for resident use only. We will ask you to give us a time for your break fast sitting and, if you choose to eat with us, for your dinner sitting also.
Your bedroom will have been thoroughly cleaned before your stay under our enhanced cleaning procedures. If you prefer we will not service your room during your stay so that you are the only people in the room. Waste bins, damp towels etc can be left outside your room.
We will provide fresh milk and the tea, coffee etc that you need each morning. Just text me if you need refills. There will be hand soap in the rooms and we will provide shampoo and shower gel on request.
There will be a quarantine box for any books you might look at during your stay.

What you don’t see
Our updated risk assessments.
Our staff training on precautions to take at home and at work
Our detailed cleaning program between guest stays and each day in communal areas.
Social distancing in the kitchen
Staff are asked to certify themselves symptom free when they leave work each day. Regular touch free staff temperature checks recorded centrally.

It’s a worrying time for all of us, the Corona virus (I still don’t feel scientific enough to use its Sunday name COVID 19 – I only got a C in Physical Science O Level) is all we seem to talk about. But at the moment we can act responsibly and keep ourselves, and each other, safe and still make the most of 2020.

We know that you need to make your own mind up about travelling, and that some of you will have the decision taken out of your hands, but for the foreseeable we are open for business and ready to welcome you with namastes, Vulcan greetings (tho annoyinglyI can’t actually do that ) or the cool thing they have developed in Wuhan with their feet.

These are anxious times. Trust me as a congenital over thinker and self employed human, I know this. The hotel and bar have the strictest hygiene procedures, and we’ve popped in a couple more just to make us all feel better. All our team have been briefed on the correct way to work, at this time and indeed at all times.

We’re not going to run out of loo roll. We have amazing food made in the most part with Scottish ingredients, many local to Skye and some local to our little peninsula. We live on an island of open spaces, fresh air and the sort of views that can lift your soul from any despond the world might throw at you. The picture with the blog is from our beer garden – we’d love to share it with you.

Check out @keeptheworldtravelling on Instagram, and don’t forget to wash your hands xxx

…on over romanticising  Scotland.

Scotland in general is magical. Skye in particular. We have the most beautiful scenery which touches people in ways they can’t explain. People who came to stay with us when we first arrived still keep in touch because their memories are so precious. But it’s a real place, with real people doing real stuff.
Its tipping it down outside, not fluffy snow, wet sploshes of very chilly rain that soak right though my cardi. I turn on my lap top with my wee, frozen fingers. Someone on one of the Scotland fan pages on Facebook is in Glasgow. Should I go to Skye or Inverness in my campervan she asks? Not Skye, I reply. It’s foul here today. From across the world I am contradicted. No, Skye is beautiful whatever the weather, you’re so ungrateful, you’re so lucky to live there (actually not lucky, we sold everything we had and moved to the unknown to do a job also unknown, foolish maybe, brave possibly – not lucky). Trust me, today is not a day to be visiting Skye. The dog blew over, you can’t see a blimmin foot in front of your face… but hey what do I know, I’m only the one chasing the bins across the croft.
While I’m on one. It’s not coos (to rhyme with ‘ ooooh, aren’t they cute’) it’s cows (to rhyme with ‘ow I’ve been stabbed by a 12’’ horn while trying to pet the calf because I saw it on Instagram’) unless you’re actually speaking Scots. Also coorie is not the new hygge. In fact if you check with the Danes, hygge isn’t even the new hygge. Coorie is not about harris tweed cushions, tea cosies (tho I’m very in favour of teacosies, no one likes cold tea and the ladies of Portnalong make amazing ones) or paying £7 for a blondie. It comes from the Scots word meaning crouch for protection, families sheltering their children from the grinding poverty of the time – listen to the beautiful Miner’s Lullaby (Coorie doon) to get the idea. Or read Lesley Riddoch’s fabulous article in The National.

So come, eat our extraordinary food, sample our world famous malts, breathe in the fresh air of Talisker Beach, check out the dolphins at Fiskavaig Bay. Chat to the incredibly hardworking housekeeping chaps in your b & b, to Neily Beag on the bus who makes a point of escorting those who find their shopping hard to manage to their door, to the hilarious locals at the bar who’ll buy you a dram and tell you All The Stories. Take photos that people back home won’t believe are real. But you’ll know. They are. Because Skye is.

Also follow the fabulous @wodieskodie on Twitter to get the best take on island life.