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

Octoberfest 2016

Alfresco dining October 2016

The dramatic change of colour in the glen marks the arrival of Autumn, shades of green turn orange and brown, the temperature begins to drop and whilst Rowan trees are loaded with bright red berries others are shedding their leaves. It’s a great time of the year to visit for a brisk walk in the woods in the crisp autumn air. Octoberfest is about getting out and about before the onset of winter and enjoying all that Mother Nature has provided. and you can be sure we’ll have the log fires lit for your return. 

A wee dram by the fire?

It’s hard to imagine October at Clachaig without a festival.  We’ve been doing it for so long that it’s almost second nature. It’s not that hard is it? Stick on a few more beers and plant a banner in the paddock, ‘if you build it they will come’, to misquote the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. 

But we’re better than that and our customers expect and deserve more, so what is our autumn festival all about? Well, as you’d expect there will be beer, music and hearty grub as usual but this year we have a few surprises in store.

Cascading Hops

There’s a definite hoppy theme in the boots bar where Ann Marie has been busy festooning or whatever it’s called. Our arty bar staff have been busy waxing lyrically on the chalkboards about our deliciously moreish hot chocolate drinks, new additions to our growing gin collection and upcoming live music whilst the rugged outdoor types are stacking logs for our guests to enjoy cosy nights by the fire.

We will, of course, be showcasing the very best of Scotland’s cask and craft ales including some new brews from Loch Lomond launcing exclusively at Clachaig. This year we introduce Strathaven Ales and can’t wait to taste their Fiery Cauldron along with a variety of aptly named autumnal cask ales including Octoberzest, Witches Cauldron and Lochtoberfest.  

We will be rotating a very tasty craft lager selection from Cairngorm, Loch Lomond, River Leven, West, Orkney and Williams Bros and we’ve not forgotten the stout either with Silkie Stout and Black gold both putting in an appearance. For cider lovers we have cask and keg delights from ThistlyCross and
Cairn ‘O Mohr. 

 

For those pondering which ale to have, why not try our new beer flights offering your choice of 3 glasses x 1/3 for the price of a pint. Flights are a great way to sample our vast selection without committing to a full pint. On the other hand, if you know exactly what you want you could double your pleasure with our new 2-pint steins 

Enjoy 3 ales for the price of a pint

double the pleasure

Over 300 malt whiskies and a growing collection of 40 something Scottish gins grace our shelves so there's plenty to choose from. If you're a newby to the mystical world of whisky or baffled by rise in popularity of Scottish produced gins then we have the very answer to your prayers. Our ever popular Whisky and Gin  Tasting Masterclasses hosted by our supplier Gordon and Macphail are back. Pre-booking is strongly advised. Our evenings are relaxed and informal, and very unpretentious. An ideal opportunity to get to grips with what can appear to be a very daunting (but equally very pleasurable) part of Scottish culture.

Glasgow School of Art students enjoying a dram

Hungry? Allow our talented chefs to set your taste buds drooling with impressive daily specials using the very best local produce available including Prime Scotch Steak, local hill-shot venison and award winning freshly culled haggis. They’ve been busy creating a variety of casseroles and sausages using beer, whisky, cider and gin and not your average bangers either, fancy a foot-long hot dog with a variety of toppings including Chilli, cheese or fried onions....or all 3. 

Foot long banger anyone?

 So now you’re suitably fed and watered, what next? Depending on when you visit you could:

• Put your feet up and chill by the fire with a wee dram
• Join in our ever popular quiz with great prizes on offer  
• Simply listen to or join in the Sunday evening openmusic session
• Expand your knowledge and treat yourself to a malt whisky or Scottish gin tasting masterclass from the experts at Gordon & Macphail.
• Are you a pool shark? New this year for the more competitive, Friday night is pool knockout. Great prizes on offer for the winner and runner-up with spot prizes for the flukiest or most ridiculous shot. 
• Dress up in your scariest fancy dress forHalloween. Try your hand at pumpkin carving. Prize for best costume and best Pumpkin 

Did we mention our legendary live music? This year we really have rolled out the big guns.

Join in the music session

·         Friday 14^th Derek Young; Derek has amassed a strong repertoire of songs, including both contemporary and traditional Scottish, Irish, Country and Folk music.

·         Saturday 15^th Kinky Karma; Predominantly a covers band playing music from the 60’s to present. Songs by  Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Kasabian and many more…

·         Sunday 16^th – Open Session;  All musicians, twangers, strummers & part time whistlers  – and everyone else for that matter – are very welcome.

·         Saturday 22^nd Lewis Hamilton; Lewis and his band are Scotland’s hardest working Blues-Rock trio. As a guitarist he pays tribute to some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, taking influence from people like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallagher.

·         Sunday 23^rd – Open Session; don’t be shy, bring along your Bodhrán, guitar or violin and join in....or borrow one of ours.

·         Saturday 29^th Halloween fancydress/pumpkin carving and music from Moonshine Maggie; Dig out your dungerees for some good old Foot-stompin’ country, southern and classic rock…..Yeehaa!

For full details see: http://www.clachaig.com/whats-on/?whatson_id=2245

So there you have it folks, Scottish cask and craft ales, locally produced food, Scottish gin, vodka, rum and  whisky, Scottish stouts and ciders, Scottish music and the best craic you can experience, surely something for everyone.

Special Offers on our Hotel Accommodation to coincide with our autumn festival in Glencoe.
For 2016 we have held our prices from last year. No increase, offering even better value, especially on our Dinner, Bed & Breakfast packages.

Now THAT’S Octoberfest.

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.