I hated camping, but a posh clifftop tent in Fife changed my mind
I don't like camping. The thought of shivering under canvas has filled me with dread ever since struggling to pitch a tent in a howling Kilsyth Hills rainstorm as part of a Duke of Edinburgh gold award scheme.
Then I married Claire, who loves camping — a compromise was needed. To the rescue: Catchpenny Safari Lodges, perched on the cliffs between Elie and St Monans, where Alex Nairn and his wife Tara have put the glam into glamping with eight luxurious safari lodges you might expect to find in a five-star African game reserve.
With a setting, decor and facilities beyond the wildest dreams of a camping sceptic, Catchpenny's lodges are the Taj Mahal of glamping. They have everything a happy camper could wish for, from fully equipped kitchens to log-burning stoves and fluffy blankets to hot-water bottles.
Tara's design flair is evident in stylish hand-crafted furniture and artwork in a large open-plan living room and three bedrooms, including a quirky elevated king-size cabin that our six-year-old claims with delight as a hidey-hole playroom.
Throw in big comfy couches, quality bed linen, constant hot water, powerful showers and discreet floor lighting and you have a warm, cosy home from home, powered by small wind turbines and solar panels.
All that's missing is a TV — and that's fine with us, especially once our daughter discovers playmates in the lodge next door. For the next week the racket of TV cartoons is replaced by the laughter of children playing hide and seek, which we contentedly observe from a large front deck with a sofa, chairs and barbecue.
The camp is perched on a small grassy escarpment directly over the Firth of Forth, with sweeping panoramas from the Isle of May to the Pentland Hills. It's a kaleidoscope of changing weather. In sunshine the Firth sparkles happily like a river of jewels, and on dull days the views become misty and mysterious, as if conjuring images from Greek mythology.
And always the endless, soothing sigh of the sea and a profound sense of peace and calm, broken only by a pod of dolphins at one point, leaping and twisting in mid-air close to shore.
The lodges stand alone on farmland, so each morning we wake to the lowing of cattle in a harmonious duet with the sea. One night nature joins the chorus with light rain and the soft pitter-patter of raindrops on the canvas roofs. Our stay dissolves into lazy mornings musing on the hurly-burly roundabout of daily life, and the need to step off it more often.
Time passes with no pressing need to do anything or to go anywhere. The Fife Coastal Path passes right below our lodge, and there are tidal rock pools just below that offer hours of happy pottering. However, I find myself succumbing to the temptation to sit on the deck with a glass of wine and stare at the sea and do nothing.
One day we sample the produce of Bowhouse (bowhousefife.com), a collective of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers less than one mile up the coast selling everything from jewellery to venison sausages.
• Baern at Bowhouse, East Neuk, Fife, review — a serious foodie destination
Another highlight — and one to check out if you are here between July 12 and 20 — is Largo Arts Week (largoartsweek.com), where more than 50 artists display in homes, gardens and public buildings. I leave with a print of a lone yacht sailing on a darkening sea that speaks to me of solitude, peace and freedom.
Our final port of call is Cambo gardens (cambogardens.org.uk), a magical kingdom of fairyland forests, flowers and fun on a huge coastal estate near Crail that fires children's imaginations with a Lost Elf Village and the biggest, most inventive wooden playpark our wee one has ever seen.
• Five of the best walled gardens in Scotland
There is a maze of woodland paths and a walled garden ablaze with sweet-smelling roses. Banks of wildflowers by a fast-flowing burn are havens for birds, bees and butterflies and we wander here happily for hours, lulled by wind rustling softly in the trees, water tinkling over rocks and joyful birdsong. It could have been the theme song of our glamping Taj Mahal.Four nights' self-catering for six at Catchpenny cost from £425 (catchpennyelie.co.uk)
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Times
6 hours ago
- Times
I hated camping, but a posh clifftop tent in Fife changed my mind
I don't like camping. The thought of shivering under canvas has filled me with dread ever since struggling to pitch a tent in a howling Kilsyth Hills rainstorm as part of a Duke of Edinburgh gold award scheme. Then I married Claire, who loves camping — a compromise was needed. To the rescue: Catchpenny Safari Lodges, perched on the cliffs between Elie and St Monans, where Alex Nairn and his wife Tara have put the glam into glamping with eight luxurious safari lodges you might expect to find in a five-star African game reserve. With a setting, decor and facilities beyond the wildest dreams of a camping sceptic, Catchpenny's lodges are the Taj Mahal of glamping. They have everything a happy camper could wish for, from fully equipped kitchens to log-burning stoves and fluffy blankets to hot-water bottles. Tara's design flair is evident in stylish hand-crafted furniture and artwork in a large open-plan living room and three bedrooms, including a quirky elevated king-size cabin that our six-year-old claims with delight as a hidey-hole playroom. Throw in big comfy couches, quality bed linen, constant hot water, powerful showers and discreet floor lighting and you have a warm, cosy home from home, powered by small wind turbines and solar panels. All that's missing is a TV — and that's fine with us, especially once our daughter discovers playmates in the lodge next door. For the next week the racket of TV cartoons is replaced by the laughter of children playing hide and seek, which we contentedly observe from a large front deck with a sofa, chairs and barbecue. The camp is perched on a small grassy escarpment directly over the Firth of Forth, with sweeping panoramas from the Isle of May to the Pentland Hills. It's a kaleidoscope of changing weather. In sunshine the Firth sparkles happily like a river of jewels, and on dull days the views become misty and mysterious, as if conjuring images from Greek mythology. And always the endless, soothing sigh of the sea and a profound sense of peace and calm, broken only by a pod of dolphins at one point, leaping and twisting in mid-air close to shore. The lodges stand alone on farmland, so each morning we wake to the lowing of cattle in a harmonious duet with the sea. One night nature joins the chorus with light rain and the soft pitter-patter of raindrops on the canvas roofs. Our stay dissolves into lazy mornings musing on the hurly-burly roundabout of daily life, and the need to step off it more often. Time passes with no pressing need to do anything or to go anywhere. The Fife Coastal Path passes right below our lodge, and there are tidal rock pools just below that offer hours of happy pottering. However, I find myself succumbing to the temptation to sit on the deck with a glass of wine and stare at the sea and do nothing. One day we sample the produce of Bowhouse ( a collective of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers less than one mile up the coast selling everything from jewellery to venison sausages. • Baern at Bowhouse, East Neuk, Fife, review — a serious foodie destination Another highlight — and one to check out if you are here between July 12 and 20 — is Largo Arts Week ( where more than 50 artists display in homes, gardens and public buildings. I leave with a print of a lone yacht sailing on a darkening sea that speaks to me of solitude, peace and freedom. Our final port of call is Cambo gardens ( a magical kingdom of fairyland forests, flowers and fun on a huge coastal estate near Crail that fires children's imaginations with a Lost Elf Village and the biggest, most inventive wooden playpark our wee one has ever seen. • Five of the best walled gardens in Scotland There is a maze of woodland paths and a walled garden ablaze with sweet-smelling roses. Banks of wildflowers by a fast-flowing burn are havens for birds, bees and butterflies and we wander here happily for hours, lulled by wind rustling softly in the trees, water tinkling over rocks and joyful birdsong. It could have been the theme song of our glamping Taj nights' self-catering for six at Catchpenny cost from £425 (
Times
12 hours ago
- Times
Mr Tea fraudster to stew in jail after police bag their man
Tam O'Braan exuded raffish charm as he courted Country Life, the respected weekly magazine that has twice employed the King, then the Prince of Wales, as its guest editor. 'He claimed he rowed a canoe along the length of the Amazon and spent four years exploring South America,' one former staff member recalled. 'Tam also said he survived being bitten by a highly venomous spider and went on to be shot at by soldiers as he neared the border of Thailand and Myanmar on another expedition. 'He insisted it was the ideal preparation for launching Scotland's first tea plantation.' 'All this derring-do was very exciting but there was definitely a niggling feeling that it was all too good to be true.' Two years earlier, in 2015, O'Braan appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live where he told the host Nicky Campbell that his Dalreoch White tea, grown on the banks of the Tay, had been crowned the best in the world. Choking back tears he claimed he would be unable to accept the most esteemed prize at the Salon du Thé awards in Paris as his wife was about to give birth to twins. 'I suppose you could call me Mr Tea, after winning such a major award,' he crowed, after composing himself. O'Braan, known for his bespoke tweed suits, highly polished brogues and extraordinary CV, went on to assert that his homegrown brew was a personal favourite of Queen Elizabeth. However, there was no trophy, lavish awards ceremony overlooking the River Seine or a royal seal of approval. The accolade, the event and the monarch's endorsement were dreamt up by the self-styled 'adventurer, inventor, scientist and entrepreneur'. Caught up by the romance of Scottish tea, rather than whisky, being the toast of the world, no one apparently bothered to verify his outlandish claims. As such, his top blends went on to sell for £35 for a 15g tin at Fortnum & Mason's flagship store in Piccadilly, London. He continued to make a series of remarkable assertions, including that he served with both the British and Irish armed forces, played professional rugby, was headhunted by President Obama to work on an experimental agricultural project and invented the now ubiquitous 'bag for life' shopping carrier while working for Waitrose in the 1990s. This week, however, O'Braan, 55, was sentenced — under his real name of Thomas Robinson — to three-and-a-half years imprisonment after his abundant crop of fantasies and falsehoods was finally exposed and scythed down. He hoodwinked the owners of some of the country's most famed hotels, such as The Dorchester in London and Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel, as well as genuine tea growers, journalists and business owners while securing more than £550,000 through fraud. 'This was a scheme to deceive, a scheme to make money on the basis of lies,' Joanne Ritchie, for the prosecution, told him. 'You went as far as to make up these elaborate lies so you appeared to be a man of integrity.' Addressing jurors directly at Stirling sheriff court, Ritchie added: 'This man has lied to every single witness who encountered him. But more than that, he lied to the public at large.' Trading as The Wee Tea Plantation, Robinson insisted his wares — Highland Green, Silver Needles and Scottish Antlers — were grown in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway. However, he actually ordered vast quantities of loose leaf tea from China, Malawi and Sri Lanka, repackaged it and sold it as 'Scottish tea'. The overseas produce was then sold for 100 times its cost by dint of its rare north European provenance. Robinson disguised the fraud by getting the leaves delivered to a mailbox address in Glasgow registered to 'Thomas James Consultants', while his suppliers were ordered to sign non-disclosure agreements. Between 2015 and 2018 Robinson also supplied more than 22,000 'Scottish tea plants' to a dozen other growers at a cost of £12.50 each. They actually received plants sourced, at a price of €3 each, from an Italian nursery. Robinson told the Royal Horticultural Society he had invented a 'special biodegradable polymer' that allowed tea cultivation to thrive in the temperate Scottish climate. When challenged to demonstrate it he briefly brandished what appeared to be an ordinary supermarket-issue black bin liner. By 2017 Perth and Kinross council & Food Standards Scotland, a government agency, launched after the horsemeat scandal, were alerted and began to investigate. Robinson told investigators, confronted by largely empty fields, that the vast majority of his plants had been stolen overnight by thieves and insisted the paperwork that could verify his claims had been destroyed in a flood. In court Robinson insisted he had recently 'tripped over an electrical wire and fell into the basement of a castle', leaving him in poor health and unable to remember many events. As he was led away in handcuffs after being unanimously found guilty, Robinson continued to protest his innocence, bleating: 'My life's work will stand in the history of tea.' Ron McNaughton, a former police detective who is head of the Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit, insisted Robinson was an inveterate liar who deserved little sympathy. 'His actions caused real financial and reputational harm to individuals, businesses and the developing sector of genuine Scottish tea producers,' he said. The Balmoral Hotel, whose guests have included Dwight D Eisenhower, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton and JK Rowling, has issued a public apology for inadvertently serving fake Scottish tea. 'To have been deceived in such a calculated manner left us all profoundly disappointed and embarrassed,' Andrew McPherson, its general manager, said. 'I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to anyone affected by this tea incident, particularly our loyal guests who trusted in the authenticity and quality of our offerings.'
The Sun
18 hours ago
- The Sun
Huge £500million underground tunnels set to connect four UK islands & ‘reverse decades of depopulation'
PLANS for a £500million underground tunnel service connecting four UK Islands have been taken to the next level. This comes after Shetland councillors agreed to take forward proposals for the construction of tunnels between islands in a move described as 'a significant step.' 6 6 6 According to The National, a report on the future of Shetland's inter-island transport was presented to councillors for the first time on Wednesday. The report recommended enhanced ferry services for Fetlar, Foula, Papa Stour and Skerries, together with the case for tunnels to Bressay, Unst, Whalsay and Yell. In the wake of the report, councillors have now agreed to fund a study to establish the commercial and financial viability of a tunnel system. Future steps to move the project forward were also discussed. The options presented in the report don't come with any cost estimates, with the council emphasising the funding is uncertain. Earlier this year, The Scotsman reported that the tunnels are expected to cost more than £500million Council Leader Emma Macdonald told The National: "Tunnelling in Shetland is, ultimately, about future-proofing our island population. 'Transport connectivity is central to creating sustainable islands which provide good homes and good jobs for our people, and which reverse decades of depopulation.' She added: 'The experience of our neighbours in the Faroe Islands is clear - tunnelling from mainland Shetland to our outer islands could increase their population, lower their average age, and increase their economic prospects.' Such tunnels are common in the Faroe Islands and Norway. Ms Macdonald also insisted that they must continue to invest in a reliable ferry service as well. Councillors hope these plans will put a halt to depopulation In reference to Wednesday's meeting Ms Macdonald said: 'This represents a significant step towards the construction of tunnels between our islands.' One of the world's deepest bars to open in London Isles MP Alistair Carmichael expressed his excitement for this project, saying it is now time to deliver on this long-anticipated promise. The MP described the tunnels as having the potential to be transformative for Shetland's economy. Mr Carmichael added: 'It has been a long road just to reach this point and there is still a long way to go but I am glad that progress is being made.' He concluded that he is excited to keep up the momentum as he anticipates further talks with UK and Scottish governments. The report was published by a team of consultants appointed by Shetland Islands Council. A team of engineering consultancies COWI, Stantec and Mott Macdonald have been collaborating on the study, and exploring how transport links between islands could be improved over the next 30 years. The National also reported that Wednesday saw the discontinuation of any possibility of a Feltar tunnel for the time being. 6 6 6
