Preparing to Welcome Guests Once Again

As the new season approaches, the rhythm of life at Eddrachilles begins to change.

After the quieter months of winter maintenance, booking enquiries, and planning, attention turns steadily towards welcome — initially of our team, and ultimately of our guests. Dust-sheets are removed from staff quarters, rooms refreshed, and we begin what we call “start-up”: a now well-practised plan to deep clean and reset guest bedrooms and public areas.

Garden paths are checked. Outdoor work plans for the next three months are agreed — always in the knowledge that Nature will rewrite them. Menus are discussed and honed while supplies are ordered and delivered.

The hotel, like the landscape around it, moves gradually from stillness into readiness

The Visible Signs of a Season Turning

One of the first outward signs of this transition has been the return of our window cleaners. After a winter of wild Atlantic storms, a fine crust of sea salt settles over the glass — a reminder of the elements that shape life on this coast.

Last week we welcomed back the team from Assynt Window Cleaning, whose careful work has restored clarity to the views across Badcall Bay. Much appreciated by my father on his last visit to Eddrachilles in the closed season as he “road tested” the sun lounge, sun outside but inside the wood burner on, a cosy place to watch the mesmeric views of the equinox tides rising and falling in the bay.

Elsewhere, essential exterior repairs have quietly taken place. Weather boards and guttering have been attended to thanks to the skilled help of local tradesman Ian Macdonald. Over the coming weeks — and always weather permitting — the exterior of the building will also be repainted. It is a substantial undertaking, marking both renewal and our continuing stewardship of this historic former manse.

The Work Guests Rarely See

Inside, preparations gather pace in ways that are less visible but no less important.

Bedrooms that have been in winter storage mode begin their gradual transformation back into welcoming guest spaces. Lamps are reassembled, carpets washed, linens unpacked, pictures rehung. Plumbing systems are tested. Bathrooms checked and rechecked. Paint is applied where a quiet refresh is needed. Electrics are tested.

After a long journey north, guests should encounter ease and comfort. Achieving that simplicity in an old building requires weeks of steady, methodical work behind the scenes.

Supplies arrive in a quiet but constant flow — food deliveries, cleaning materials, wines and store-cupboard essentials. Menu planning discussions continue across our digital links. Are we offering enough plant-based options given the rise in flexitarian diners? How should we describe traditional breads such as bannocks? Do we need an “orange wine” option this season?

New kitchen appliances — including an oven, salamander and induction hob — have arrived just in time to replace older equipment before new dish testing begins and rehearsals for the first dinner services of the year that will soon get under way.

Garden Tidy Up

Outside, attention is also turning steadily to the grounds.

Winter has left its usual imprint — fallen branches to clear, beds to tidy, benches to repair or replace. James will be kept busy with his “war on gorse, sneakily starting to bloom before he returns. In the Polycrub, the first real signs of the coming season are already under way. Seeds have been planted — sweet peas, herbs, early vegetables and salad leaves — while more tender plants that spent the worst of the winter storms under shelter are gradually being hardened off again to face Highland conditions.

The last planting of bare-root shrubs is being completed. Cuttings of dogwood for next winter’s hedging projects are hastily taken. There is still lots of brash to burn from winter tree work, though this must wait patiently for the right combination of weather and wind direction.

Garden preparation at this time of year is rarely about display. It is about readiness — shaping the spaces guests will soon wander through on longer evenings, pausing perhaps on a bench to look out across the bay as spring gathers momentum..

Rebuilding Operational Momentum

On harsher weather days, attention turns to many smaller but essential projects.

Pet and human first-aid kits are checked and replenished. Annual expert testing of smoke alarms and fire-fighting equipment is booked. Training materials and employee handbooks are updated as this spring brings changes in UK employment law and workplace rights. Administrative systems are reviewed. Courses are booked.

For seasonal teams there is a particular discipline in rebuilding operational momentum each spring — reacquainting ourselves with routines, refreshing skills and preparing to work together once more with confidence. This also includes helping new colleagues settle not only into a new workplace but into life in the North West Highlands, which many have never experienced before.

Members of the team are already beginning their journeys back north after winter travels and time with family. Our Head Chef and his partner recently experienced an unexpectedly adventurous return from Vietnam. What was intended as a straightforward journey via the Middle East became a far more circuitous route — involving a diversion back to Thailand, a stop in Hong Kong, and eventually a long direct flight to London.

They will pause in Glasgow with family before coming back to set up home once again at Eddrachilles. En route Trevor plans to meet his friend, mentor, and our soon-to-be Chef de Cuisine, no doubt retelling many legends of kitchens past. At this time of year, such stories feel fitting. Journeys begin again. Plans realign. The season comes together.

Ground Floor Sea View Room ready to welcome guests.

Looking Ahead

The preparations themselves are rarely dramatic. Yet they shape everything that follows.

Each small task contributes to the atmosphere guests encounter on arrival — the sense that a place is cared for, that attention has been given, that welcome has been thoughtfully prepared long before the first suitcase is set down.

As the new season draws closer, we look forward once again to the familiar pleasures of hospitality: conversations in the lounge after a day exploring the coast, tables set for dinner in The Glebe Kitchen, and the quiet satisfaction of seeing guests settle into the rhythm of this remote corner of the North West Highlands.

As rooms are made ready and paths cleared in anticipation of your visit, if you are thinking of travelling north this year you can explore staying with us here.