Stay in either The Wooden House or The Watchers House at Ardmore for the week, just yards from the seashore. Enjoy home-cooked breakfasts, packed lunches and evening meals prepared for you by our cook each day. Four days of guided adventures in the mountains and on the sea for just your family. The evenings and the final day are free for you to enjoy the peace and quiet for yourselves.
The crofts at Lower Ardmore are our year-round home. Set about a kilometre from the Adventure School along Loch A Chadh-Fi, our principal access is by boat. Three houses sit close to the shore, The Wooden House and The Watchers House, home to our family holidays and The Beach House where Rebecca and Mark live.
We bring you across the sea loch in our workboats, landing on the slipway at Ardmore. Ardmore can also be reached on foot; a 40-minute walk along an undulating footpath from the road end at Portlevorchy which we use in the wilder weather times of the year.
We will guide you and your family on your four full-day adventures during your stay. With our instructors we’ll tailor these days to your family and the weather, making the very most of the sea, shoreline, moorland and mountains. Our instructors are enthusiastic, mild-mannered and great with children and young people. The children (and adults if they wish) can spend a night on Survival Island. Ardmore is our year-round home and we know the landscape like the backs of our hands.
The remaining day is set aside for you to explore the local area on your own, perhaps spending the day on one of the local sandy beaches, or just enjoying the house and the croft. We can suggest several different options for you.
Set off with your instructor from Ardmore in sea kayaks. We’ll take our packed lunches with us and explore the sheltered coves and bays of Loch A Chadh-Fi and Loch Laxford, often seeing seals, otters and sea eagles. We have single kayaks, tandem kayaks and kids kayaks perfectly sized for younger family members who want to paddle their own boat.
Hike to the summit of Ben Stack or Arkle with your instructor. These mountains form the eastern horizon that you see from the houses at Ardmore. We’ll set off after breakfast and start our ascent from the foot of the mountains, returning home to Ardmore for a swim before dinner.
Beautiful low-level walks are possible too if your family prefer.
Rebecca or Mark will take you out in our workboats to lift crab and lobster pots and look at the catch. In August weeks it is possible to fish for mackerel too.
We’ll land on a remote headland in Loch Laxford to learn survival skills, foraging for wild foods, and lighting a small fire on the seashore to cook them.
Cross Loch A Chadh-Fi by boat and rock climb and abseil on an ancient rocky outcrop overlooking Ardmore.
Learn to manage the ropes under the watchful eye of your instructor, with several different rock climbs to tackle.
Towards the end of the week and with a reasonable forecast the children can spend the night on Survival Island. Using the foraging skills, building shelters from old yacht sails and cooking on open fires with the mountains and the ocean as the backdrop. Adults can join them too if they wish.
We prepare breakfast, sandwich fillings, home baking and two-course evening meals for you, making use of local and seasonal produce where possible.
Breakfasts include cereals or porridge, a two-part cooked breakfast such as scrambled eggs and bacon, toast and jam.
We leave a packed lunch tray of ingredients for you to create your own sandwiches at breakfast, enabling you to spend the whole day out and about, with home baking awaiting your return at tea-time.
Evening meals are either soup and a main course or main course and a pudding to suit your tastes and we ask that the children clear the table and load the dishwasher.
The kitchens will be stocked with teas, ground coffee and milk. We ask that you bring any additional drinks and snacks with you at the start of your holiday, or you can arrange to have them delivered to us before you arrive.
To make the most of the activities, we suggest that your youngest child be at least seven years old. You are of course welcome to come with a child younger than seven years old, but that may impact the ability of some family members to participate fully at all times.
| Date | The Wooden House |
|---|---|
| Please enquire | Please enquire |
| Date | The Watchers House |
|---|---|
| Please enquire | Please enquire |
Families coming independently will have an instructor to themselves and experiences that are just for their family.
Families travelling to us together and taking both houses will usually eat together in the Wooden House and would have two instructors for the four days of activities to give as much flexibility as possible.
Hand on heart, this has been the best family holiday ever – so many magical experiences and lots of wonderful memories.
Linda Roberts – August 2020
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