Big Winter Raffle 2017

Each year during Februaryfest we pledge to raise as much cash as we can for worthwhile local causes. This year we’re concentrating our efforts on the provision of defibrillators for the local communities of Glencoe, Ballachulish & Onich. 

Throughout the month our staff have been busy selling tickets for our Big Winter Raffle. Not many folk escaped Katie & Ann Marie who were present during all four lectures, the gin & whisky tastings and on busy Saturday nights. Our frontline team were also on hand to twist a few arms. The swag room this year was bursting at the seams with a cart load of beer, cider, whisky, accommodation, gear, food and activity vouchers along with t-shirts, umbrellas and golf balls galore all up for grabs. 

To give an extra boost to our fundraising we cleared out the attic and held a Yard Sale providing a great opportunity to bag some Clachaig (& Grog) memorabilia

We are very grateful to our sponsor Mammut who pay for the Winter Mountain Safety Lecture Series and also a big shout to our suppliers and local businesses who get right behind our fundraising efforts with incredibly generous products & activities. But the real heroes are our customers & guests who donated generously once again and dug deep for their hard earned cash.

So a big 'Thank You' in no particular order to: 

Mammut UK

Nevisport

Letterfinlay Specialist Foods

Ice Factor

Holroyd Gallery

Dragons Tooth Golf Club

Cairngorm Brewery

Loch Lomond Brewery

Thistly Cross Cider

West Brewery

Strathavon Brewery

Orkney Brewery

Glencoe Mountain Resort

Benromach

Gordon &Macphail

J M Breckenridge 

Not forgetting Karl from Glencoe Photography for taking the snaps
Ann Marie and Will for assisting with the draw

Special thanks to the lecturers:

Andy Spink

Dave Anderson

Rich Parker

Mike Pescod

 We are still counting the pennies but we have raised over £1700 so far.

.....and the winners are!

Top prize - Rab sleeping bag. cosy cosy!

Careful what you wish for Jess

Will is always good to his mum!

Its all downhill (skiing) from here!

Beer in a bag

My neighbours look chuffed with their haul....must call round

Merlin casts a winning spell

Brolly, whisky & golf balls....new sport?

Art attack

Wow!.....suddenly this lucky lady had lots of new friends

Nice!...that will help with the bar tab

You can get a lot of smoked salmon for £50

£50 to spend at Nevisport....and there's a sale on!

 18 holes of golf - he's never been so happy

Well done Ann Marie & Will

And the band played on. Great tunes from HoRo

See you all next year

Putting the fun into fundraising

Plenty of fun was had during our busy autumn festival ‘Octoberfest’ and the full programme of live music, gin & whisky tastings, pumpkin carving, quizzes & pool competitions kept us all busy.

Halloween Staff fancy dress

 

Serious pool sharks

Tabitha and her amazing pumpkin

Our rolling fundraising commitment to actively raise funds for a variety of locally based charity/projects raised £200.00 for the Glencoe Community Defibrillator Fund.

Pool Winner

Staff Pool Champ

Many thanks to all who participated in these fun events and to our suppliers who donated generous prizes for the winners. See you again next year.

Sizzling start to Mayfest

From House-Martin to House-Band

Fantastic start to Mayfest 2012 as Paul Heaton opened the celebrations on Friday night and entertained a packed Boots bar with a fine selection of solo material along with some great tunes from his back catalogue. What a cracker! Amazed he had so much energy given he had cycled from Ullapool to get here.

Woodsie and Stirton

Boots Bar virgins Mad Ferret were in great form for their Saturday night debut, normally we 'trial' new acts on quieter nights first but it was straight to top billing for Woodsie and Stirton and they certainly lived up to their own blurb with an extremely tight, technical performances with a driving knowledge and passion for Scottish and Irish folk music. A great night with much foot-stomping and hand-clapping.

Sunny outside so I may have to stack some keg

We went through a fair selection of ales over the weekend and judging by the picture above we've got some tidying up to do, mind you with weather like this we shoudn't be short of volunteers. Now to the cellar to see whats coming to a hand pull near you!

Loch Lomond Ales

Should you decide to take the high road or indeed the low road to Clachaig this week you're sure to find a great selection of Scottish cask ales. New to our taps this week are 4 fine ales from Loch Lomond Brewery. We could tell you what they taste like but why don't you pop round and find out for yourself.

Plenty of fun on the way as Mayfest continues this week and into the long bank holiday weekend with live music tonight from Mak-A-Din, Bonnie & Jim on Friday night and some jigs guaranteed from Finn on Saturday night. Music starts at 9pm in the Boots Bar. check out our What's On page for details.

It wouldn't be a beer festival without our ever popular Ale Tasting Masterclass and you can sample some great ales from Cairngorm Brewery this Thursday from 8pm in the Snug and on Tuesday River Leven Ales will be here to pass on some more cask ale enlightenment! 

See you at the bar!

Whisky Galore...and more

Last week we were mostly discussing whisky and it wasn't all idle gossip judging by the results on the shelves. We have managed - courtesy of the extra display space following the recent refurb - to increase our collection of fine malt whisky to well over 250 bottles.
Along with the old favourites Macallan, Glenfarclas and Benromach you will find a rather splendid 1978 Millburn, an 18 year old Glendronach 'Allardice' and a 20 year old Port Dundas to name but a few.

Malt of the moment

And don't worry if you can't tell your Lowland from your Speyside, come and learn from the master on Thursday 16th February when Richard Urquhart from Gordon & Macphail, recently crowned 'whisky wholesaler of the year' holds his ever popular whisky masterclass.

Introducing the longest hand pull in the world....probably

And we haven't neglected our winter beer festival, Febfest either. Finding enough space in the cellar and locating the hand pull badge are a few of the challenges we face every beer festival. However, our ever innovative bar staff have come up with an ingenious alternative to scrabbling about in boxes looking for badges.

New ales to sample this week are WilderNess from Loch Ness Brewery , APA from Houston Brewery and back by popular demand Traditional Scrumpy from Westons 

  

Our winter beer festival continues until the 3rd of March with a full line up of entertainment including the Winter Experience Lecture every Tuesday so there's still time to book accommodation and enjoy the craic.