Pitlochry's mystery shop announces open date.

There has been much speculation as to the new business going in to the old Perth College premises in Atholl Road, Pitlochry. The premises have been purchased by Kirpal Singh Sually the owner of the Scottish Shop, next door. Mr Singh has been very tight lipped as to what his new business venture will be, even running a 'Guess the business competition' for those who think they know. He has now announced that all will be revealed this Saturday 9th July.

Mr Singh says, "We have had quite a few people submitting their ideas to 'Guess the business competition' for the old Perth College premises. Ideas have ranged from a pole and lap dancing club, Ann Summers Shop, a variety of food outlets, outdoor activities and a range of retail ideas. No one to date has guessed the business correctly." He continued, "The business ideas have been very interesting, if anyone else is interested in starting a business in Pitlochry they are welcome to come and look at the ideas collected, after the competition has ended, they may well give them an idea of what people think the town needs."

Work is progressing well in getting the new business ready for its launch. Malcolm Hewitt the Pitlochry based joiner who is working on the project and has been sworn to secrecy says, "I have had all kinds of people speculating to me what the business will be. I understand on Facebook there has been quite a bit of activity, with some really novel ideas, causing great hilarity." He added, "I am sure everyone will be very impressed when all is revealed this weekend."

Mr Singh is offering special launch weekend deals for the Saturday and Sunday 9th and 10th July, doors open at 9am on Saturday. Also organised are a special pre-launch invitation only afternoon on Friday 8th July, for businesses across Highland Perthshire. There is a £50 voucher to spend in the new business for the 'Guess the business competition' winner.

Festivals and Events in Highland Perthshire.

One of the strengths of Highland Perthshire is that it has an excellent range of Festivals and Events all year round. The year starts with New Year Street Ceilidh in Pitlochry on new year's day each year - this event attracts over 3,000 people.

The Winter Words Festival in February is Britain's Book Festival of the year, run by Pitlochry Festival Theatre which also runs various shows through out the winter and spring weekends - these have proven to be popular, attractive people to the area for short breaks during times of the year they would not have otherwise have come to the area. The theatre made its name with its very popular 6 plays that run throughout the summer season.

The first big event, the largest of its kind in Britain is Etape Caledonia the close road cycle event, in the second or third Sunday each May. In 2011 there were some 4,300 cyclist who took part, many coming to Highland Perthshire for the first time and others who have made it a must in the yearly diaries. The participants bring their supporters, friends, families all helping to swell the event and add to the festival atmosphere. On the back of this event Highland Perthshire Cycling Group are driving cycling in the area so cycling is an all year round activity for visitors.

At the end of May on the Saturday is the Atholl Highlanders Parade, (The Duke of Atholl's Private Army - the only private army in Europe). This is followed by the seasons first Highland Games, the Atholl Gathering held in front of Blair Castle. Highland Perthshire have Highland Games running throughout the summer in each large town, Blair Atholl, Dunkeld and Birnam, Aberfeldy, Kenmore, Kinloch Rannoch, and the final games of the year in Pitlochry in September.

The Blair Castle Horse Trails and Country Fair at the end of August attracts some 40,000 plus people over 4 days each year. Europe's top equestrian teams attend; many are European and Olympic medallists. The Country fair is a large tented village hosting all kinds of businesses catering for those with horses, to out door clothing and the very popular food hall.

In the Autumn there are two major events which help to extend the season right in to early November - The Enchanted Forest a lighting festival that attracts some 20,000 people over 17 days, has been rolled out to 24 days in 2011.

Perthshire Amber built around the Scottish folk singer Dougie MacLean, running for 10 days at the very end of October in to November, attracts people from all over the world, many staying for a number of nights and some actually stay for the whole 10 days of the festival.

Finally the Winter Festival at Kenmore was start in 2010 for the first time, this is intended to help bring people to the Kenmore - Aberfeldy area in November - December in its first year, is successfully attracted families as well as couples, proving there is a market for such a festival.

Perth College shop in Pitlochry changes hands.

One of Pitlochry's longest unoccupied business premises has changes hands. Perth College premises in Atholl Road, Pitlochry has remained unoccupied since September 2009. It has been purchased by the owner of the Scottish Shop, Kirpal Singh Sually and is hoping to have the doors open in early July. Workmen have started gutting the building to transform it for his new business venture. This will be a great new asset to range of the Pitlochry shops.

Kirpal Singh says, "I moved to Pitlochry in 2000, opening the Scottish Shop, which has become well established amongst locals and visitors to the town. The old Perth College premises are directly next door to the Scottish Shop, so I was intrigued as to what would happen with it. After protracted negotiations, I have been able to acquire the premises to operate a very different business to the Scottish Shop."

Mr Singh was not prepared to divulge what his new business venture will be, only saying that he had given it a great deal of thought and was bringing a new concept to Pitlochry. Mr Singh anticipates the new business opening its doors in early July. He said so many people have asked him what he is doing, that he has decided, for a bit of fun, to run a 'Guess the business competition', with free entry slips from his Scottish Shop next door. There will be a prize draw and the winner will be announced on opening day in July.

Peter Guthrie the Development Officer for Highland Perthshire Destination Management Organisation, said "It is really great to see an unoccupied premises in Pitlochry being taken over by a local successful business. I am intrigued like everyone else as to what Kirpal Singh will put in there, as he is being very tight lipped about his new project."

Highland Perthshire's Chocolatier wins Gold, Silver and Bronze in London 

Iain Burnett The Highland Chocolatier, based at Grandtully, between Aberfeldy and Pitlochry, has received five awards - one in every category entered for his unique Velvet Truffles. The international Academy of Chocolate Awards were held at Fortnum & Masons, London.

The Academy is an organisation for chocolate professionals, with leading food journalists and Michelin starred chefs tasting and scoring the entries. Entries were sent in by top chocolatiers all around the world.

Iain Burnett's Velvet Truffles were awarded two Golds, two Silvers and one Bronze for Best Truffle and Best Filled Chocolate categories. 

The winning recipes included:-

• the pure Mild and Dark varieties of the Velvet Truffle,
• and infusions with Assam Tea & Green Cardamom,
• Crushed Raspberries & Black Pepper
• and White Lime & Chilli.

Burnett said, "It is particularly gratifying to see the top awards going to the Velvet Truffle in its purest form, where the judges were tasting only the delicate flavour profiles of the cocoas and fresh dairy."

The Highland Chocolatier, can be visited at their premises at Legends of Grandtully. Grandtully is a small village on the banks of the river Tay, on the A827 between the towns of Aberfeldy, Dunkeld and Pitlochry.

In the last 5 years that Iain Burnett has caught the attention of the culinary world, nominations and awards have been accumulating including Scotland Food & Drink Excellence, Best Food Service Product, Great Taste Triple Gold Stars, Spirit of Scotland, and Food Tourism for his creation of the Scottish Chocolate Centre, an exhibition dedicated to gourmet chocolate.

The "Perthshire Picts"

I thought I would highlight a fascinating illustrated talk about the Picts being given this Tuesday. In the 1980s a Pictish man was discovered in Blair Atholl, now he is in a box in Perth Mueseum, I hope to learn all about him and lots more on the world of the Picts in Scotland.

The talk entitled "Perthshire Picts"  by Mark Hall, the History Officer at Perth Museum and Art Gallery this Tuesday 22 March at 7.30 pm in the Atholl Arms, in Blair Atholl.  Admission is £4 at the door (goes to supporting the local Museum), arranged by the Atholl Country Life Museum.

 So who were the Picts?

The Picts once were the inhabitants of Scotland, first being mentioned by the Romans in 297AD, their name comes from the Roman word 'picti' (painted people). They successfully lived in Scotland, resisting the Romans, Vikings, Danes and Angles to the south unil the mid 800AD, when they disappeared when they intermarried with the Scots who had come over from Ireland in the 600s AD.

 There is evidence of the Picts is all over Highland Perthshire in the form of defended homesteads and Pictish Forts. There is a rich local Pictish heritage including local treasures, such as the Pictish Stone in Struan Church, the Aldclune Silver Brooch (discovered at the 'Kings Palace' in the 1980s and on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh), the highly ornate Dunfallandy Stone by Pitlochry and also the important remains of the Pictish Man discovered in Blair Atholl in 1980s.

 Evidence of the Picts can be seen all over Highland Perthshire and deserve better efforts to highlight the part they played in Scotland's History. Hope to see you at Tuesday's talk, full details in the 2nd paragraph above.

Cycling in Highland Perthshire, Pitlochry, Rannoch, Aberfeldy

This year Highland Perthshire Cycling as well as running the Highland Perthshire Cycling Festival will also be at the Scottish Bike Show on 16th and 17th April, in Glasgow promoting Highland Perthshire as a cycling destination in its own right.

The 2011 Highland Perthshire Cycling Festival is shaping up to be bigger than ever, events take place all over Highland Perthshire including Pitlochry, Dunkeld, Aberfeldy, Kinloch Rannoch. Most are Free of Charge aimed at kids, families, women and men.
 
3 New cycling Initiatives this year:-
1. Highland Safaris "Biketrax" - Have a new 1 km track, designed with families in mind. Construction progressing well. 11am Friday 13th May - Official Opening by John Swinney MSP.
2. Skinny Tyres - Scot Tares is giving up his main job to focus on road cycling in Highland Perthshire. Road cycling in Highland Perthshire is some of the best cycling in Europe.
3. Progression Bikes in Dunkeld open during April, specialising in mountain bike coaching, bike hire, day trips, drop at the top of Craigvinean Forest being timed down, plus much more. Saturday 21st May is their Official launch day in Dunkeld.

Scottish Borders Cycling - would you believe they paid us a visit, to see if they could learn from Highland Perthshire, great to see that others think we are making an impact in cycling?

Dove arrives in Highland Perthshire - Yesterday I attended a presentation on DOVE a new customer feed back system presented by Marina Huggett one of the six founders of the system from Inverness, developed without public funding. The event was at the Birnam Institute at Dunkeld, organised by Peter Guthrie the Highland Perthshire Destination Management Organisation (DMO) Development Officer.

Dove stands for 'Delivering Outstanding Visitor Experience' - Marina told us how 6 businesses in the Inverness area, got together and decided it was not good enough having an excellent tourism business if the visitors also experience less than perfect quality during their visit to the area.

Marina explained Dove is a system that allows you to collate your visitor feed back, it allows you to compare how well your business is doing compared to others in the same sector. It also allows you to compare your whole region's visitor experience versus other areas.

A couple of quotes that particularly stood out for me from Marina :-

"Everyone has the opportunity to improve their business" and feed back is a critical way of doing this.

and "If one person tells you something it is their opinion. If ten people tell you something you have to listen"

The Highland Perthshire DMO have signed Highland Perthshire up to be part of DOVE, this covers businesses in all the areas of Dunkeld,Pitlochry, Blair Atholl, Rannoch, Kenmore,

It costs £60 per year for the Bronze entry level to Dove. The Highland Perthshire DMO are subsidising the first 25 businesses so their cost will be £25 - we have already signed up Squirrel Cottage to the system.

Yesterday I attended a presentation on DOVE a new customer feed back system presented by Marina Huggett one of the six founders of the system from Inverness. The event was at the Birnam Institute at Dunkeld, organised by Peter Guthrie the Highland Perthshire Destination Managment Organisations (DMO) Development Officer.

The first three or four months of each year are notoriously quiet from a tourism point of view all over Scotland. Highland Perthshire is no different, but we are seeing one or two initiatives to put on events and activities on at this time of the year.

  Pitlochry Theatre's Winter Words Festival, started the ball rolling 7 years ago. This runs for ten days at the end of January in to February each year. We went to a couple of events this year, one about Wolves being reintroduced in to Scotland and the second about mapping and the Ordinance Survey, both were excellent.

 The Pitlochry Lighting Committee installed Winter Lights as opposed to the traditional Christmas Lights. These were switched on in October at the start of the Enchanted Forest 17 days and will be left on until the end of February (is my understanding).

 Now Kenmore at the end of Loch Tay, near Aberfeldy is inaugurating a Winter Week running from Wednesday 16^th February to Sunday 27^th February. Daily cruises on Loch Tay, Scottish Crannog Tours, music, woodworking workshops, story telling, chocolate making to name a few. This event is cleverly positioned during the children's school half term holidays. Speaking to Barrie Andrian of the Scottish Crannog Centre, the master mind behind the whole event, she is hoping longer term the Winter Week will spread across the whole of Highland Perthshire.

Highland Perthshire had its first full time dedicated cycle shop in 'Escape Route' in Pitlochry in 1997. There have been a number of businesses that rented out cycles as in most areas of Scotland.

 The big change to cycling in Highland Perthshire was the introduction of Etape Caledonia, Britain's only closed road event for cyclists. The first Etape Caledonia event was held on Sunday 24th June 2007 amidst quite some considerable opposition. The opposition was against road closures and some of the opponents had grievances with P&K Council over various issues. From a personal perspective I felt the communications about the event had been poor and this is what got many people's backs up.

 The 81 mile Etape Caledonia route starts in Pitlochry, but runs through the communities of Tummel, Rannoch, Fortingall, Dull and Weem near Aberfeldy and back to Pitlochry.

 The event has grown year on year, with the 2011 Etape Caledonia selling out six months early with 5,250 entrants up 750 on the 2010 level. There is no doubt the event attracts many people to Highland Perthshire that would not have otherwise have come here. The stunning scenery along the route leaves many first timers to  the area really impressed.

 One of the outcomes from the event is that a group of businesses and individuals worked to maximise the event for Highland Perthshire. Initially the objective was to ensure as many Highland Perthshire businesses were involved from marshalling, to therapists, catering and of course accommodation. Also to make sure businesses along the closed road route were involved where ever possible.

 This has led to the formation of the Highland Perthshire Cycling Group who now employ someone one day a week all year round to drive cycling in Highland Perthshire, in the schools, to clubs and events and importantly now coordi