“Great cottage, minor flaws.”
Cnoc Nan Cubhaig nestles in the foothills of the southern end of Ballachulish within earshot of the River Laroch and next door to St Munda's Church. I was part of a family group who spent a week here in early March 2014. They were the ones who actually booked the property.
The location is good, halfway up an uphill cul-de-sac. Ballachulish has a local pub and a reasonably big (and slightly relocated) Co-op store within around a 5-10 minute walking range from the cottage. There's also a tourist information office and an hourly bus service into Fort William and Kinlochleven, should you need it. You are about a 10-minute drive away from the fabulous Glencoe and just over twice that from Fort William and Nevis Range. The scenic reputation of the whole area should not need elaboration. If this is your first time to the area, prepare to be gobsmacked! If you're a hiker like me, you'll be especially rewarded.
The best thing about the cottage has to be the kitchen and dining area - large, very well equipped and high quality equipment (check out the big American-style fridge!). Underfloor heating is installed here and in the adjacent utility room where you'll also find the washing machine and condenser. There were four bedrooms with either double, twin or bunk beds, two of which have en-suite bathrooms. Sandwiched between the bedrooms was the main living room with large flat-screen TV, DVD player and, strangely, seating for only four adults. As there were six of us in this party, we found that a little odd. We did bring in an extra chair from one of the bedrooms as the instruction booklet suggested. There was more seating in a small room next to the living room with TV, DVD and Playstation 1 console (along with a big range of games). This would probably work if there were children here, but all of us were adults and we wanted to socialise in the same room. If eight adults were here, there simply would not be enough seating space.
There is decking around the rear of the cottage which may be lovely in summer but the weather didn't play along, more's the pity! The area is very quiet at night so you're in for a good night's sleep. Overall, a nice place to stay with a couple of suggestions - a) place small wastebins in all of the bedrooms, and b) information on recycling and refuse collection wouldn't go amiss - this may have been in the brochure so apologies if it is, but I didn't see it. Also, would it be better to put a lock on the linen cupboard if you don't want anyone going in there, rather than have a sign promising to charge you if you do? Just those little things...
- MSTD1, March 2014
