Category: Scotland

Good Craic Café, Inverness

Michael MartenLeave a comment

This is a nice café in the centre of Inverness, with good coffee, interesting art on the walls, and friendly staff. The cludgies were decent, with nice tiles on the back wall.

A cludgie, with the sink and mirror on the left, and the cludgie itself towards the right. The back wall and the area immediately above the sink have patterned grey tiles on them.
Subtle grey tones for the cludgie.
The hallway to the cludgies, with a white wall to the left (with a mirror on it), and a turquoise wall at the back with a large painting hanging on it. To the right is a door to the unisex cludgie.
The lobby area for the cludgies – take care not to go through the other door from the café, or you’ll be in the kitchen, expected to help the washing up!

River Ness Hotel, Inverness

Michael MartenLeave a comment

A couple of years ago we stayed in a large, dodgy hotel in Inverness, but noticed the River Ness Hotel and thought if we were coming back, we should stay there. Well, we recently did just that.

It was definitely an improvement in every regard, and we’d recommend it; booked early enough, it was quite reasonably priced. Although a franchise, it appears to be run by a local family, which we liked.

The room’s cludgie was pretty good.

A cludgie to the left of the photo, and a shower cubicle to the right; the wall is a mottled pattern of grey/brown.
Pleasant colour scheme and patterns …
A photo of a bathroom sink, with a mirror above it; the mottled grey/brown pattern on the walls is continued from the previous photo.
… with a design that felt quite spacious.

The Scottish Deli, Dunkeld

Michael MartenLeave a comment

Dunkeld is not a big place, and we have posted another entry from the town…but we can report on another delightful cludgie, this time at The Scottish Deli, after we stopped off for lunch there.

The door – for reasons we didn’t enquire about – has a collection of “Simon’s cheesy jokes” that are exactly what they sound like:

– Which genre of music appeals to most cheeses? R ‘n’ Brie!
– Why did the Swiss cheese go to church every day? Because it was very holey!

We didn’t ask who Simon was. We hope his taste in cheeses is better than his taste in jokes!

A door with a sign saying “Simon’s Cheesy Jokes” with laughing emojis on it, and lots of yellow circles with jokes printed on them all around it covering much of the door.
Lots of Simon’s dodgy jokes!

But what is the cludgie like, after you’ve spent time looking at the door?

A colourful tiled wall on the left above a sink and a cludgie, and on the right a red wall with some small framed pictures.
The first thing you see is a riot of colourful tiles behind the cludgie and the sink (and yes, in the mirror there is a baby-changing table visible).
Six small framed photographs on a wall, of various people, with a painting in the middle of several eggs in a basket. The wall is a deep dark read.
Then there is a selection of wonky photographs of staff, surrounding a photo of eggs in a basket (no, we don’t know what that’s about either).
A toilet roll holder in the form of a knight in armour, with the arms holding the toilet paper roll.
Below the pictures is the most unusual toilet-roll holder we’ve ever seen (we presume the “please do not touch” refers to the switch for the boiler, not the paper).
A colourful door, covered in pictures of fruit, vegetables and cheeses. On the right of the door there is a radiator, and on the left a fold-out baby-changing table.
Finally, on turning around again, the door is a colourful combination of fruit, vegetables and cheeses – all sold at the deli counter, of course.

It’s quite astonishing that in one of the smallest cludgies we’ve been in, there’s so much to see! But go see for yourself, if you’re ever in Dunkeld (and the light lunches are pretty good, so no reason not to go!).