Julie-Ann and Martin Shipley took ownership of the Strontian Hotel in early May, and Julie Ann shared her thoughts on their time in Strontian so far for the July edition of De Tha Dol, a great local magazine that is available from most shops in the area.

It’s amazing how time takes on another dimension here. We can hardly believe that we’ve only been here five weeks at the time of writing this, as we feel like we have been here much longer. That’s largely due to the warm welcome we have received from the local community, and also due to the fact that taking over a fully functioning hotel has been all-consuming, with long days and a lot of extra admin to deal with. We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now though, and are settling into some order of normality, at last!

The move was over a year in the making and our first day here in situ was actually our first wedding anniversary, having married on Skye in 2021. Like many others, the pandemic, bereavements, marriage and changes within the leisure parks sector I was working in led us to re-assess our direction in the future, and a move to the area was potentially always on the cards.

When we saw the hotel up for sale, we knew straight away it was exactly what we had been looking for and kickstarted the process to buy it. We could never have foreseen the number of hurdles we’d have to overcome to do that, but we eventually took over from Michelle and James Hilder in early May. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their patience and help during the takeover period.

Since then, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind and we’re now just starting to be able to take a little time to get out and about to enjoy the area for ourselves and meet some of the names and faces behind many of the other businesses in the area so we can recommend them to our guests.

Of course, it helps that The Bothy team have been strong and solid continuity throughout, and we are lucky to have such a fabulous in-house restaurant here run by Jody, Debbie and the team. They’ve been kept exceptionally busy in June, and that’s meant that we are advising folks to make sure they book their tables as we like to make sure we keep everyone happy.

We’ve got a rolling programme of continuous improvement planned for the hotel to give it a substantial uplift in both capacity and feel.  That’s already started with rebranding and incoming new signage, and we will be refreshing the accommodation with the help of an interior designer, turning two more available rooms into guest suites. They can be hired together as a family grouping or as standalone suites, so that increases our potential for group bookings. 

Finally, we would just like to say thank you for all the support so far. Our aim is to promote the wider area as much as ourselves, and hopefully that should benefit all. It’s an amazing place to stay and live, and we’re already incredibly glad that we managed to make our move happen as we’re loving it here!