Family activity holiday in Scotland
| country: | Scotland |
| location: | Scottish Highlands |
| departures: | This trip can be tailor made throughout the year and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements as necessary |
| price: | From £400 - £650 (7 days) per adult and £350 - £600 per child (under 15) excluding flights |
| more info: | Price includes accommodation, transport, food and activities (both depending on requirements). Child-minder available on request. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
The North West Highlands is a fantastic place for a family holiday, with its golden sandy beaches, dramatic landscapes, abundance of wildlife, great food and relaxing pace of life. There is something for everyone, from the friendly pubs and cafes of Ullapool to the vast expanses of wilderness of Wester-Ross and Sutherland.
Choose from a wide range of activities and different types of accommodation to create your perfect family holiday!
Leckmelm Farm is a great place for children and adults. Lochside cottages are set on the edge of Loch Broom and are the perfect place to watch sea birds from and, if you’re lucky, seals and otters too. We also use Frances Fogg’s cottage in Ullapool for those who would prefer to be in the village or East Rhiddoroch lodge for those who prefer somewhere wilder.
We can provide breakfast, picnic baskets for lunch and evening meals, with menus tailored to reflect your family’s tastes and the region’s specialities or, if you prefer the raw ingredients to cook for yourselves. We source all our meat and fish locally and grow as much of the greens as possible.
The daily programme of activities is entirely up to you. Your choices include; beach days, felting, wild food foraging, bird watching, treasure hunts, meeting the animals on the farm, hill-walking, boat trips, fishing, hikes to the bone caves and storytelling in the tipi. We aim for Wild Rose holidays to be unique, fascinating and exciting.
Featured highlights:
Here are some of the activities you could do with your family while you are with us. Some of the activities are one the farm or near Ullapool, while others are further a field, allowing the family to really experience the Highlands. We have some indoor activities more suitable for wet weather and other which are definitely outdoor days!
Beach days
You could visit one of the regions stunning sandy beaches where there is always enough space for a game of frisbee or cricket and plenty of shells, pebbles and drift wood for the whole family to build beautiful beach sculptures. You could also forage for mussels for supper and learn about what lives along the sea shore.
Wildlife days
If you are interested in finding out more about the region’s bird life, then we can travel north to Handa Island, a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve well known for its nesting sea birds. There you’ll have a chance to spot species such as Puffins, Great Skuas, Kittiwakes and Fulmars. You could also go red deer watching and try to spot seals and otters on Loch Broom.
Wild food foraging and plant i.d. days
You can learn about edible wild foods and plants. Walking along the shore we can forage for our supper, finding edible greens, seaweeds and shell fish. In the evening we can create a wild feast together over the camp fire.
Felting workshop
Learn about fleece and felting. Visiting Hilda on her croft, you can meet her very tame sheep and goats and learn how to felt wool and then make wall hangings, pictures, bags, scarf’s and much more...
Farm visits
Meet all the animals on the farm, including; pigs, sheep, Highland cattle, chickens, ducks and the grumpy turkey!
Boat trips
Take a trip on Brian’s rib to visit some of the smaller islands and watch the seals relaxing on the rocks.
Mountain & walking
Stac Pollah is an impressive hill set in a stunning landscape. Reaching the top gives the whole family a massive adrenaline boost! The Bone Caves are an exciting place for families to walk to. A walk along the river takes you to three caves which were once inhabited by bears, wolves and man over 7,000 years ago.
Treasure hunt
An outdoor treasure hunt, where the family has to follow clues to find the Leckmelm treasure.
Storytelling in the tipi
Have a traditional supper and storytelling around the fire in a tipi. Listen to local folk tales and share any stories you might have of your own.
Choose from a wide range of activities and different types of accommodation to create your perfect family holiday!
Leckmelm Farm is a great place for children and adults. Lochside cottages are set on the edge of Loch Broom and are the perfect place to watch sea birds from and, if you’re lucky, seals and otters too. We also use Frances Fogg’s cottage in Ullapool for those who would prefer to be in the village or East Rhiddoroch lodge for those who prefer somewhere wilder.
We can provide breakfast, picnic baskets for lunch and evening meals, with menus tailored to reflect your family’s tastes and the region’s specialities or, if you prefer the raw ingredients to cook for yourselves. We source all our meat and fish locally and grow as much of the greens as possible.
The daily programme of activities is entirely up to you. Your choices include; beach days, felting, wild food foraging, bird watching, treasure hunts, meeting the animals on the farm, hill-walking, boat trips, fishing, hikes to the bone caves and storytelling in the tipi. We aim for Wild Rose holidays to be unique, fascinating and exciting.
Featured highlights:
best time to go
This itinerary can be taken from April through to October, although we do run holidays all year. activities
On the first day we will pick you up from Inverness on Saturday afternoon and take you to your accommodation, where you will be greeted by a basket full of regional and homemade edible goodies. After time to relax and get a feel of the place, we will discuss the week’s itinerary. This is very flexible and can easily be changed as the week goes on. Here are some of the activities you could do with your family while you are with us. Some of the activities are one the farm or near Ullapool, while others are further a field, allowing the family to really experience the Highlands. We have some indoor activities more suitable for wet weather and other which are definitely outdoor days!
Beach days
You could visit one of the regions stunning sandy beaches where there is always enough space for a game of frisbee or cricket and plenty of shells, pebbles and drift wood for the whole family to build beautiful beach sculptures. You could also forage for mussels for supper and learn about what lives along the sea shore.
Wildlife days
If you are interested in finding out more about the region’s bird life, then we can travel north to Handa Island, a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve well known for its nesting sea birds. There you’ll have a chance to spot species such as Puffins, Great Skuas, Kittiwakes and Fulmars. You could also go red deer watching and try to spot seals and otters on Loch Broom.
Wild food foraging and plant i.d. days
You can learn about edible wild foods and plants. Walking along the shore we can forage for our supper, finding edible greens, seaweeds and shell fish. In the evening we can create a wild feast together over the camp fire.
Felting workshop
Learn about fleece and felting. Visiting Hilda on her croft, you can meet her very tame sheep and goats and learn how to felt wool and then make wall hangings, pictures, bags, scarf’s and much more...
Farm visits
Meet all the animals on the farm, including; pigs, sheep, Highland cattle, chickens, ducks and the grumpy turkey!
Boat trips
Take a trip on Brian’s rib to visit some of the smaller islands and watch the seals relaxing on the rocks.
Mountain & walking
Stac Pollah is an impressive hill set in a stunning landscape. Reaching the top gives the whole family a massive adrenaline boost! The Bone Caves are an exciting place for families to walk to. A walk along the river takes you to three caves which were once inhabited by bears, wolves and man over 7,000 years ago.
Treasure hunt
An outdoor treasure hunt, where the family has to follow clues to find the Leckmelm treasure.
Storytelling in the tipi
Have a traditional supper and storytelling around the fire in a tipi. Listen to local folk tales and share any stories you might have of your own.
how this holiday makes a difference
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Everything we do is aimed at making a positive impact on the people who stay with us and on the people, places and communities that we introduce them to.
Environment: We believe passionately in protecting our local environment. We source local produce to cut down on food miles, our fish and seafood generally comes straight out of the Minch and our meat from the farmland around us. We carbon offset your journeys with us in Ross-shire and encourage you to do the same with your journeys up to us. The c-change trust is an ethical British carbon offsetting charity, which plants trees in Britain. We re-use and recycle all that we can, from paper in the office to fishing rope washed up on the beach. We compost all our food waste and recycle cardboard, aluminum and plastics. We try and minimize our energy use and encourage our guests to do the same. The Loch side cottages are fitted with under floor heating and are well insulated, reducing the amount of energy needed to heat them. The open fires in the cottages use wood from the estate. We use green, non chemical cleaning products and make sure we put no harmful chemicals into the water system. We use a tipi as an extra space, due to its low impact as we can remove it leaving no trace. We start as many of our walks as possible from the farm cutting down on emissions caused by the week. We are very aware of the natural unspoilt beauty of the area and endeavour to help keep it that way. On visits to the beach we carry a few bags so we can do a stint beach cleaning before leaving. We encourage clients to adopt the responsible tourist’s mantra of; “leave only foot prints, take only photographs” Education plays a large role in our family holidays, we want to get children interested, excited and wanting to learn about the environment by; watching, identifying and even tasting it! Ross-shire is a sparsely populated area dominated by massive tract of mountainous wilderness. Our business helps to support and expand a regional network of like-minded individuals. We help to encourage cohesion and skill-sharing amongst craft practitioners and our other specialists. Community: We are committed to using local services wherever possible. All the accommodation we use on our family holidays is owned by local families. Virtually all the food we serve is locally produced and the experts involved live in the area. We generate employment and revenue for local people and businesses including farmers, market stall holders, fishermen, artists, craftsmen, cafes, restaurants and shops. We hope that many of our guests will return to the area in the future. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |