"Atholl Palace is a wonderful place to visit. The staff are very helpful and polite, nothing is a problem! The food is amazing and the rooms are made up daily. This is great for either a weekend break or stay for a week. Great for couples or families. The spa is also brilliant and relaxing. Book now and stay, you won't be disappointed!"
September 2010
Pink-footed geese have been going over almost daily, travelling south and east to their winter haunts, Montrose Basin and Loch Leven. Up to 50,000 geese will come south from their summer breeding grounds in Greenland and Iceland to overwinter locally with many more going further south to Norfolk and other estuary areas. How to tell a Pinkfoot from a Greylag when in flight? Broadly speaking the pinkfooted geese make a “wink,wink” sound whereas the greylags are much more “honk,honk”!
We have recently had a bird survey done at the Palace, it’s not the finished article as new birds will inevitably show up and that happened recently. Lesley, who works at reception and lives next door to the Palace, saw and filmed a nuthatch in her garden. This used to be a very rare bird in this part of Scotland and, indeed still is, but there are signs that they are moving north and it is great that we have managed to record one at the Palace. Well done and thank you, Lesley.
Going Green is something we are all being encouraged to do and at the hotel we have begun a determined drive to bring ourselves up to, and in front of, present day legislative requirements. The Green Tourism Business Scheme has helped us enormously to focus and prioritise the areas we need to be making progress on and to do all that we have set up our own, in house, Green Team. Many areas are having to be scrutinised including energy usage, waste recycling and disposal, staff training, management and marketing, purchasing and natural and cultural heritage. We could just tick the boxes and be satisfied with that but that is not going to happen. With the support and encouragement of the directors we are taking the challenge head on and hope you notice ,over the coming years, the changes we are putting in place to make our hotel a more environmentally friendly and sustainable business. A Green Corner, just at the main entrance to the hotel, will have all the necessary information, progress reports and pictures to keep you up to date with our journey.
The garden is going through a quiet phase just now. The grass is beginning to slow down, flowers and shrubs are preparing to draw back their reserves to cope with winter and the trees are just beginning to change colour. The theme of the Enchanted Forest this year is The Force of Nature.....I am told it will be well worth the effort to see it. Innes
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