Sharleen Spiteri and more for Outsider Festival

Sharleen Spiteri and more for Outsider Festival

The Outsider is back for its second year after a hiatus in 2008, retaining the unique concept of combining music, comedy and films with outdoor pursuits such as mountain biking, gorge walking and mountain climbing.

Set in the Scottish Highlands the festival encourages revellers to leave the site to explore the surrounding countryside to collect insects, bird watch and sky gaze as well as the more athletic activities.

Sharleen Spiteri heads up the first acts announced for this year's Outsider Festival. The former Texas frontwoman will be joined by Drever, McCusker and Woomble, King Creoste, Malcolm Middleton, James Yorkston and The Fence Collective featuring special guests.

Phantom Band, Lau and We Were Promised Jetpacks will also perform at the Scottish bash along with special DJ sets from members of The Futureheads, Babyshambles and Belle And Sebastian.

The Bum-Clocks, Karine Polwart and Attic Lights have also been announced today.

The Outsider 2009 will take place at Rothiemurchus Forest, Aviemore in Scotland from 20-21 June.

Early bird tickets are already on sale priced at just £50 for the whole weekend up until 13 April, when the price will increase.

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Cairngorms Holiday Cottages

Cairngorms

The Cairngorms National Park covers a huge area, 40% bigger than the Lake District, with many attractions and areas to explore, from forest walks and castles to canoeing and mountain biking for the more adventurous.

Loch Lomond
Just a few miles from Glasgow, is Loch Lomond. Call into the visitor centre at the southern tip of the Loch where you will you find information on the many campsites nearby. You can also take a boat trip across the loch to soak up the surrounding scenery.

Culloden
Inverness-shire was the location for the horrific battle of Culloden where 1,200 men lost their lives and now the National Trust for Scotland has invested in a state of the art visitor centre where you can get a sense of how the events of that day unfolded.

Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, in central Scotland, sits high up on volcanic rock and can be seen for miles around. The castle is open to visitors 7 days a week, all year round. While you?re there, explore the Palace of James V and the Chapel Royal of James VI.

Loch Ness
A must-see place to visit is Loch Ness ? the largest body of water in Scotland and home to the famous Loch Ness Monster! The loch itself is more than 20 miles long and a mile wide and boasts some fantastic, unspoilt scenery and wildlife.

Whichever part of Scotland you?re heading to, or what time of year you?re planning your trip in your motorhome, you?re bound to be amazed by the stunning landscape that the country has to offer.

For more information on places to stay http://www.cairngormsholidaycottages.com/

Self Catering Flexibility

Self catering holidays provide flexibility not only with family holiday budget but also with an adherence to routine for families with young children. A self catering holiday allows you to have a range of options when deciding your stay. Some options for self catering accommodations include wee cottages, new bungalows, luxury log cabins to Victorian highland apartments, or www.HighlandHolidayCottages.com

Smart individuals know to check hot holiday spots during off peak seasons and to shop around. How does one go about finding a suitable or any in that matter self catering holiday sites? Firsthand experience is great to have, so if you know of someone and they hated or loved it, find out why. It could save you a lot of headache and hassle in the long run. A great site to use is Tripadvisor.com which details good and bad reviews, or a more local site is myholidaycottages.co.uk.

Research can allow you to have a fun, enjoyable holiday with a little for planning, especially when you have young children that will be coming along with you on your holiday. When determining where you will stay for your self catering holiday, look at location. You will need to determine how far the residence is from attractions you will want to visit.

In addition be sure you know how large the accommodations will be so everyone will have enough room for their own comfort. Good questions to ask would be how many rooms, how many people can comfortably fit within the rooms, etc. Also make sure you ask if you will have to bring your own towels and linens, it’s important to find out how often they are changed and to make sure there will be clean linens when you arrive.

Families travelling with small children, should inquire with the owner or booking services if they have cots and high chairs. This will give you much needed additional space in the car. As a client or potential client, they will be accommodating in help you find the resources you need. Those in the travel business know the importance of word of mouth advertising, it can hurt or benefit. With the internet and a little research your next family holiday whether to , or wherever can be fun and fulfilling with a self catering holiday plan.

If you want to hire a luxury Scottish self catering holiday home or a small wee cottage, in or around the Cairngorms National Park then check out http://www.cairngormsholidaycottages.com/ .

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The Cairngorms National Park

The Cairngorm Mountains lie at the core of the Cairngorms National Park, established in 2003 and which at 3800 sq km (14000 sq miles), is the largest in Britain.

The Cairngorm National Park, covering virtually 10% of Scotland, stretches from Grantown-on-Spey in the north to the Angus Glens in the south and from Ballater in the east to Dalwhinnie and Laggan in the west. It is one of Europe’s last and enduringly beautiful wild places. It is also home to many rare plants and creatures, including 25% of UK’s threatened species. It is also a home to the ancient Caledonian pinewoods, which are recent descendants of the natural forests of ancient times. Landscape changes from high mountain tundra and rocky passes to moorlands and forests. There are also marshlands and lochs and visitors to the area can frequently spot the osprey, particularly around the Boat of Garten area.

The changing colours of the flora and fauna are spectacular. Heather moors and the sweeping glens are the haunt of red deer and golden eagle.

This area is also full of attractive little towns and villages, particularly along the river valley from Grantown on Spey to Dalwhinnie, and makes an excellent base for walking trips of all levels. Cairngorm is also famed for its winter skiing, watersports and golf in the summer, and a choice of excellent visitor attractions including Dalwhinnie whisky distillery and a steam railway

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It's Honey Bonnie Scotland

Up here in the Highlands of Scotland bees are famous for producing Heather Honey. A particular type of honey due to it being produced from the nectar of only Heather (of which there is lots of - especially here around Highland Holiday Cottages!).

So Highland Holiday Cottages have done some investigation in to the local bees and their history. Here goes!

Honey has been produced for 150 million years! But has only been eaten by humans since 40th Century BC. There are references to it in ancient Egyptian writings and in the Old Testament.

Beekeeping - where bees have been kept specifically for their honey - has been around since before the 16th Century, but you don’t need to worry, because some bee genus’ produce more honey than the hive can eat – otherwise it would seem a little unfair that after all their hard work we come along and take the profits!

Honey is basically nectar with added enzymes. Nectar is the clear liquid that drops from the end of a flower blossom, which is 80% water with some complex sugars. The bees suck the nectar and once their stomach is full, they return to the hive or nest. The bees need to visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their stomach. When full it holds almost 70 mg of nectar, which is almost as much as the bee weighs itself.

Once back at the hive, worker bees suck the nectar from the honeybees' stomachs, then "chew" the nectar for about half an hour. During this time, enzymes are passed into the nectar, breaking them down into simple sugars to make them more digestible for the bees. The nectar is then spread throughout the honeycombs where it evaporates into thick syrup, aided by the bees fanning it with their wings. Once the honey is thick enough, the bees seal off the cell of the honeycomb with wax and it is stored there ready to be eaten.

Whilst bees’ nests obviously occur naturally, commercially "farmed" honey is usually obtained from man-made beehives. Once the honeycombs are removed from the hives, extractor tanks, or centrifuge machines, whirl the honey-combs around so the honey is separated from the wax comb. This produces a liquid honey.

Now the Highland and heather related bit! Honey is flavoured by the type of flowers the bees get the nectar from and the flavour and colour of honey varies depending on the type of flower.

Most honey comes from bees which have fed on a variety of flowers, and these are known as polyfloral. But at some points in the year where there are a lot of one type of flower (and if that particular flower provides enough nectar) the bees can eat solely that nectar and it flavours the honey. Some of the types produced in the UK are Apple Blossom, Cherry Blossom, Clover, and The Highland twist is Heather Honey!

Save some cash, holiday in the Cairngorms

Take advantage of some great self catering deals, check out http://www.cainrgomsholidaycotatges.com/ for all your winter snow holiday breaks.

More and more people are choosing to take their holidays in the Highlands of Scotland rather than face the cost and stress of traveling abroad. This year’s figures are showing that most people are less inclined to travel to the usual tacky resorts in Europe but instead wanted to know about cheaper alternative Scottish holidays, in particular the National Parks such as the Cairngorm National Park. This year we have had some of the best sking and snowboarding condtions, just check the photo of the cairngorms ski area below:

Holidays in and around the med are traditionally the most popular options for UK holidaymakers, with guaranteed sunshine and cheap booze and English breakfasts.. With the current financial situation many people are finding themselves a little short of money, in conjunction with the poor euro.
The changes in the global economy are causing people to look closer to home for their holiday destinations. And maybe that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Cairngorms National Park has a lot to offer to families looking for a short break away, from self catering cottages to large estate houses.

The whole point of taking a holiday is to get away to somewhere different where you can be yourself. And whether you’re in to extreme sports, going for long walks or just relaxing by the side of a pool you can find all these things just as easily in the Cairngorms National Park as you can abroad.

If you want to hire a luxury Scottish self catering holiday home or a small wee cottage, in or around the Cairngorms National Park then check out http://www.cairngormsholidaycottages.com/ .

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Pets are always welcome

We all know that Britain is a nation of pet lovers and, with over 12 million households in the UK owning a dog or cat, organising holidays for the whole family is not always easy.

Cairngorms Holiday Cottages, recognise the fact that more and more people want quality, want freedom, and want to take their pet on holiday with them. The Cairngorms Holiday Cottage website which enables you to search through the key self-catering holiday homes in the Cairngorms National Park, Highlands of Scotland. There is a huge range of pet friendly properties across the length and breadth of the National Park, from Ballater to Dlawhinnie, which can be found with one click. No more kennels, or leaving the four-legged or even eight! member of the family with friends or relatives this year, he can enjoy the freedom of the real Scotland with you!

If you don’t own a pet – don’t worry! There’s something for everyone on Cairngorms Holiday Cottages: from country cottages, grand houses to wee button bens and luxury aviemore village apartments. The website puts you in touch directly with the owners if you want to find out more and book. Just log on to http://www.cairngormsholidaycottages.com/ to view them all.

Kingussie Fame Near Aviemore

Fame beckons for Kingussie

THE Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire factor seems to find itself reaching places other films just cannot reach. Previously obscure Ruthven Road, Kingussie, could be transformed into a tourist magnet for film fans after getting a bizarre mention in one of the film’s scenes.
Director Danny Boyle said yesterday he was looking for a new project to pursue. Perhaps he should head for the Highlands for inspiration.

After all, Kingussie is only down the road from Aviemore, where they have annual husky races. What better than Sled-dog Millionaire for a sequel?