Team building events and corporate hospitality with Sporting Scotland

Up a gear at Wick!

Last Saturday, we battled 89 mile an hour gusts to transport Landrovers, Argocat and dune buggies up to Wick for a  a 4 x 4 driving event for 48 guests staying at Ackergill Tower.  The Dornoch Bridge and cliffs at North Helmsdale were particularly dicey with the fully loaded trailers. Finally there, we fought to set up what we could in a sandstorm on the beach and then went to the local pub to wash down the kilos of sand we had swallowed and ponder on what tomorrow might bring.  Hopefully not a cancellation!  Three sea otters on the pavement were the distraction we needed, and no we hadn't had one too many. This sight made the trip seem completely worthwhile.

As is so often the case in Scotland the wind dropped, and Sunday was a kinder day.  We had a spectacular and challenging event in the sand dunes of Sinclair's Bay under at least a dozen double rainbows!

A Good Day's Shooting

More often than not, September and October have consistently clear skies producing some glorious conditions for corporate shooting days on Speyside, and this year has been no exception.

The Best Brown Trout!

The trout pond at Corglass has just been restocked with over 100 brown trout from Inverness Fish Farm for clients fishing over the next couple of months. 

These small one pound fish are delicious, which should come as no surprise as Inverness Fish Farm's Organic  Roast Brown Trout Pate has been selected for the Country Living Magazine and Waitrose Made in Britain Awards 2009 announced this month.

Fishing is in Full Swing

This week, during a multi-activity corporate event including shooting and 4x4 driving, clients enjoyed a high success rate on the trout pond at Corglass under the expert tuition of Ian Gordon.

Vintage Car Rallies - Speyside

Apart from the odd go slow behind a cattle or sheep drive, traffic jams don't happen on the scenic B roads of Speyside unless you are lucky enough to run into one of the numerous vintage rallies that tour the region. We pulled the Landrovers off the road to let this Artic Lorry Rally squeeze by and enjoyed some cheery blasts from the past.

For more information on Classic Car Rallies - classiccar.visitscotland.com

Canyoning in the Monadhliath Mountains

Whisky Month

This month Scotland celebrates its national drink. The world's largest collection of whisky has been opened at the £3 million Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh. The Experience charts the drink's history as part of Homecoming Scotland 2009, a celebration of 250th anniversary of Robert Burns as well as Scottish innovation and culture.

 Also. Speyside home to over half of Scotland's distilleries is hosting its 10th Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival offering over 250 events, most with a whisky theme, including visits to distilleries seldom open to the public, nosings and tastings, master classes, walks and dinners.  Festival buses are running so you can enjoy a dram.

www.spiritofspeyside.com

White Water Safety on the River Findhorn

Last weekend, I renewed my annual 2 day White Water Safety and Rescue Certificate on the River Findhorn. This is one of UK’s most challenging rafting rivers with stretches rated up to Level 5. The group met at Randolph’s Leap, a churning piece of water interspersed with boulders, which gave us an indication of the rescue scenarios to come.  Not on the agenda was a 6 meter log descending upon us as we tried to get out of the whirlpool at the cauldron,  and the securing of this massive log became a priority!

I must report on my gear because this worked well and like last year the water was cold! I had a 5 mm wet-suit under a dry-suit and even after 6 hours in the water I was still enthusiastic about this exhilarating course and enjoying its outstanding location. This new Wet.- and Dry Suit technology means that water activities can be enjoyed all year round in Scotland..

We have the Technology!

At this time of year gorging and kayaking seem a cold choice in adventure sport, but with today's wet suit technology it is both possible and enjoyable.  The cold just gives the event that extra edge in toughness!  These guys on  a stag weekend had an exhilarating day, clad in neoprene and rubber,  gorging at Loch Laggan and kayaking down the River Spey.  Their gear included 6mm wetsuits and boots, rubber splash suits, buoyancy aids and helmets.  The beautiful spring sunshine was definitely a bonus!

For this stag party, we organised a luxurious stay at Drummuir Castle, a multi activity event  set in its grounds with abseiling  the castle tower, grass carting and clay pigeon shooting, the adventure day described above and mountain biking.

"Survival of the Fittest"

While plotting a survival orienteering exercise for a corporate group on a highland estate in the Monadhliath Mountains, Keith and I enjoyed an interruption to our recce from these curious red deer stags, which have given us the best photo this week!

This year, we are experiencing an increased demand in survival events, which could be due to the present celebration of Darwin's life and work or simply a sign of the times! Anyway, Keith and I, with our military backgrounds are enjoying putting a military dimension to these programmes.  Survival Programmes for corporate groups are not currently on our website, so if you would like more information email or give us a ring.

The Call of Spring

The  moors and arable land surrounding our home are now full of the calls of oyster catchers, lapwings and curlews. These coastal waders have arrived to nest and rear their young  from now until the end of June. For us they are a sign of spring, long before any new green shoots or blossom. 

The fluting calls of the Eurasian curlew are perhaps the most evocative of spring time in the Highlands. So it was an unnerving experience to hear their distinctive call while we were watching migratory birds on the mud flats of Mida Creek in Kenya, and a reminder of the phenomenal migratory range of many species of birds.

www.rspb.org.uk

4. International Fly Fishing Exhibition - Kloster Fuerstenfeld - 28 - 29.03.2009

This internatinal fly fishing exhibition is held on the 28 and 29th of this month at the scenic Kloster Fuerstenfeld near Munich, Bavaria and is the biggest of its type in Germany attracting international visitors from the sport, as well as authors, journalists and travel agents. The highlight will be demonstrations by fly fishing schools, casting professionals  and fly tyers.  Speyside’s champion Spey caster , Ian Gordon will be among the demonstrators in double handed casting, so look out for him.

The exhibition includes:

over 60 international exhibitors
One-handed and double-handed casting shows by international profis and instructors
2 big casting pools to learn and test
Casting tuition for all abilities including children
Supervised fly-tying for children
Casting clinics to perfect your casting
Travel reports/films for the international fly fisherman
Fly fishing Seminars
2. Open Championships in fly-tying
Exclusive evening programme
Fly-tying presentation by international professionals

Kloster Fuerstenfeld is easily accessible by S-Bahn, fast regional train,  from Munich, which offers a great opportunity to combine your passion in sport with a city visit to Munich.

Skeleton Trees

These are our five year old fruit trees that provided all the seasonal plums and apples for our late summer barbecue parties last year. Despite cladding our trees in a meter of plastic casing from the base up, the heavy snow fall earlier this month gave starving rabbits access to strip the bark high up in the trees. The damage was done in a couple of days, so rabbit proof fencing will be rolled out round the orchard this spring.The height  and depth of the fence is yet to be determined!

We are still  quite optimistic that the casing close to the root has managed to preserve the life of the trees, so we can enjoy their fruit again later this year.

Another Event – Another Challenge!

Last week’s masses of snow disappeared disappointingly and miraculously over night, and turned everything into thick mud here on Speyside.

I have had my fair share of driving in mud in the black cotton soil of Tanzania and Kenya, but yesterday during a corporate event at Drummuir Castle, I had a reminder of just how mud can suck in your vehicle. This was a welcome opportunity to try out the new winch and Ian was happy to push the button! 
We will be doing more vehicle recovery this year as part of our new Landrover 4x4 programme.

Snow shots of the week, 7. - 15.2.

Jagd & Hund - Field Sports and Dogs Exhibition - Dortmund

After a disastrously snowy start, which delayed me by a day, I made it to the “Jagd und Hund” (Field Sports and Dogs) Exhibition In Dortmund, Germany, to join CKD Galbraith on the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Stand.

The stand generated a lot of interest for sporting specifically and travel in general, and the visitors certainly enjoyed their drams of Cragganmore Single Malt donated by Diageo. When I got off the stand, I was fascinated by the range of international exhibitors from hand made split cane fishing rods,  laser shooting cinemas, indoor Landrover driving experience, gun dog training to gun smiths and much more. The halls were vast.  I was lured by the hand made Swedish axes, Beretta semi-automatic air rifles, butchers knives and last, but not least game salamis.  I purchased from all these stands, which gave us an interesting time at airport security at Manchester during our delay back en route to Edinburgh. 

The Hund side of the exhibition was enormous with a huge variety of breeds. The amount of dogs seemed to outnumber the punters. I was thrilled to see some fine Schweisshunde, a  tracking bloodhound breed my father and I used for stalking in the Alps and I will use for stalking in Scotland once my old lab is no longer up to the job.

For those interested in fishing and a trip to Munich, I met Robert Stroh,, who is organising a specialist fly-fishing exhibition, the 4. Internationale Erlebniswelt Fliegenfischen 2009, on 28. and 29. March at Kloster Fürstenfeld near Munich, which he promises will be a spectacular event.

Elephants and Broadband

It was fascinating watching “The Secret Lives of Elephants” on BBC Scotland yesterday, not least because technology was producing the most insightful discoveries on the migratory range of the  Samburu elephants of northern Kenya.

Our sense of wonder was tempered by disbelief that Iain Douglas Hamilton can track radio collared Samburu elephants across vast tracts of wild uninhabited bush on his computer, while we can still not receive basic broadband here at Corglass. It seems broadband is too big an elephant to push up the hill to our Scottish HQ and connect us to modern life, but thank goodness the elephants of Samburu have it!

For further information about the work of the Douglas Hamiltons and their team to save the African elephant’s way of life.

www.savetheelephants.org

 

A Great Winter Warmer

A great discovery for our winter season has been the design of the Swedish Log Candle fire, traditionally used on Swedish shoots. We have found these fires throw out heat ideal for toasting hands cupping a dram of whisky after a group hospitality or team building event.

To make a Swedish Log Candle you need a chainsaw, some basic chainsaw techniques, and logs of 50 cm height and about 30 cm diameter. Turn the logs on end, so they are standing upright. Then make 4 cuts vertically in the log to within 30 cm of its base. Cut the log with the chainsaw blade held perpendicular to the end of the log. The top of the log should have 8 equal pieces showing when you are finished. On logs larger than 30 cm in diameter, make more cuts than 4 - up to 8 cuts would produce a good fire. The cuts in the log funnel air to the fire in the center producing a roaring fire within minutes.

 

December 2008

December was a busy month!

Coasteering

On Wednesday, I set off from Speyside in beautiful sunshine for a meeting with a client in the far north of the country at Ackergill Tower, Caithness.  I was looking forward to the trip, particularly recceeing the coastline near Wick for a coasteering corporate event.  However on my approach to Inverness, I hit a wall of fog coming off the North Sea that never lifted and messed up the whole day. The client’s plane could not land and I could not see a thing over at Wick apart from the Tower.  Ackergill Tower provides outstanding luxury accommodation with superb sea views.

Incidentally, we also offer coasteering events here on the east coast of the North Sea and for those unfamiliar with coasteerting, this adventure activity involves climbing, cliff jumping scrambling and sea swimming. This is a thrilling activity for those looking for an adrenalin high!