st andrews start of the season newsletter 2012

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Article page

Explore Scotland 1

Explore Scotland What has Changed?

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St Andrews Aquarium 3

Cairney Fruit Farm 3

The Cocoa Tree Cafe 4

Crail Harbour Gallery 4

Drumoig Golf Hotel 5

Cambo Gardens 5

Fisher Studio Gallery 6

The Scottish Shop 6

Sea Eagle Adventures Griselda Hill Pottery

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The Jerdan Gallery

Facebook to be ……

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Good luck to us all in the 2009 Tourist Season. In the year of

The Homecoming

Inside this issue:

Explore Scotland – what has changed? Twelve months have passed since we last communicated through our Start of Season Newsletters and much has changed.

We now have 11 Explore area Guides, covering the following areas:-

Aberdeen Ayrshire & Arran Glasgow Highland Perthshire

Inverness Inverurie Loch Lomond & Trossachs Oban and Mull

Outer Hebrides St Andrews & East Fife Stirling & Falkirk

Watch this space!!

Dumfries &

Galloway to follow

April 2012

Explore Scotland Ltd 01796 473335 The newsletter • Gives you the latest Inverness

tourist business news

• Written by the businesses themselves

St Andrews Newsletter 2012

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Explore web sites.

We have just completed the com-plete overhaul of the Explore web sites, using the latest technology available to maximise the impact and ease of use for visitors.

New features on ExploreScotland.net:-

Click on the interactive map to see the summary information on each area.

Transport section – includes the latest ‘Traffic Updates’ from Traffic Scotland.

Also on the Transport section –the latest Travel information Tweets from ‘Traffic Scotland’ ‘Travel Line’ and ‘Transport Scotland’ so you have one page you can check for all the traffic news.

New features on Explore area web sites:-

“Your Trip” planner – we believe is quite unique, it allows visitors to choose things they are interested in and drop them into their basket. They can then e-mail this or print off and bring it with them when they visit.

We know from accommodation providers, that if they can give their guests a link to the information on the website – guests will often ex-tend their stay when they realise how much there is available to see and do in the area. Our new web sites have been designed to help give visitors information in a user friendly way to encourage them to stay longer – so why not send a link

to your www.Explore-St-Andrews.com

web site? With e.mail bookings

One accommodation provider told us her average stay was over 4 nights, when the area average was just under 2 nights. She attributed this to providing them our Explore Guides with the confirmation of booking. She also said “Quite of-ten people do not realise how much there is to do and see here, and often wished they had allowed more time in their schedule.”

What’s On section – you can add events to this section there is no charge.

Daily News Sheet – this is designed for accommodation providers to print off each morning – they con-tain the weather forecast, news headlines, What’s On events for that day etc.

Explore Scotland — Website has changed!

St Andrews Tourism Newsletter 2012

This is the Website to be ‘Seen On’

If you are interested in your business being

included, please contact

[email protected]

Or phone 01796 473335

St Andrews Aquarium St Andrews Aquarium is Well Stocked for the Summer

St Andrews Aquarium in Fife has just completed a 3 month long refreshment of their aquatic displays which has re-sulted in several new fish and animals-being brought into this already popular

visitor attraction. Keen to expand on their success as one of Fife’s top tourist destinations, St Andrews Aquarium has invested heavily over the winter period in developing new displays and refresh-ing older displays to ensure a quality experience for all visitors.

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St Andrews Aquarium has invested heavily over the winter period in developing new displays and refreshing older displays to en-sure a quality experience for all visitors.

The new displays include Wolf Eels, Mudskippers, Scotland’s largest display of seahorses, two baby African Spurred Tortoises (which can grow to as much as one foot wide), bearded drag-ons, a carpet python, scorpions and two of the world’s biggest spiders:

The Goliath Bird Eating Spider and a Steely Blue Legged Tarantula.

Andrew Whiston, displays manager at St Andrews Aquarium, commented “This has been a labour of love over the last few months. Moving around displays of fish are a wee bit more challenging than land based animals, but we have got there in the

end and visitors are loving the new ad-ditions to the Aquarium’s family.”

One of the most recent additions is Oliver Twist, an orphaned meerkat, who has cap-tured the hearts of fans across Fife and Tayside since he rose to media fame last month. Now making regular outings around the Aquarium to meet the public, the

team is current working hard to see if

he can be successfully re-introduced to live with the rest of his family.

For more information on St Andrews Aquarium please visit

www.standrewsaquarium.co.uk

“St Andrews Aquarium in Fife

has just completed a 3

month long refreshment of their aquatic

displays ”

St Andrews Aquarium cont.

March/April 2012

Cairnie Fruit Farm and Mega Maze Cairnie Fruit Farm & Mega Maze opens for the 2012 season on Friday 30th March just in time for the school holi-days and Easter celebrations. We are open 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm (changing to 9.30am to 5.30pm in peak times – July & August).

There is something here for everyone at to enjoy a fabulous day out in the fresh air and enjoy our beautiful great out-doors. Pick Your Own soft fruit at Cairnie Fruit Farm Great healthy fun for all the family as well as ensuring con-sumption of several of your ‘Five a Day’! Come and get lost in our 6 acre Mega Maze, made of … maize! This year the design will depict the Olympic Games to reflect London 2012. The Mega Maze opens at the beginning of July usually in time for the school holidays, until the end of October and then it is harvested and fed to cattle ensuring environ-mental efficiency. As well as the Mega Maze the kids can have a great time playing in the Funyard in the straw bale climbing fortress, on the peddle go-cart

track, trampolines, crazy swings, giant sandbox, zip wires, ride on diggers, XL bouncing pillow and an ATV barrel ride. New for 2012 season the ‘Cairnie Cresta Run’ grass bob sleigh run.

Come along and browse through our lovely spacious Farm-shop where you can find our freshly picked fruit, taste and buy our award win-ning ‘Cam’s Jam’, be tempted by Cairnie’s takeaway home baking as well as a varied selection of home grown and locally sourced sea-sonal veg from Fife. We also have a great selection of specialty fine foods and a fun array of books, cards and gifts. . Finally choose from our popular family friendly menu in our lovely Tea-

room which offers wholesome healthy food. For more details go to www.cairniefruitfarm.co.uk

Biz Logan Dairsie Manse Manse Road Fife KY15 4RS Tel: 01334 650562 Mobile: 07764970663 [email protected]

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The Cocoa Tree Café & Pittenweem Chocolate Co.

The Cocoa Tree Cafe & Pittenweem Chocolate Company is a year-round haven in the heart of the picturesque, East Neuk fishing village. Our inde-pendent, artisan and family-run choco-latier sources fine speciality chocolates from Scotland, Belgium and around the world, including single origin choco-lates from personally selected planta-tions. Owner, Sophie Latinis, is pas-sionate about showcasing fair trade, responsibly grown and unusual, exqui-

site flavours. Sophie also recently launched her own bespoke chocolate range - hand-made in Pittenweem - including her exclusive se-ries of single malt liqueur chocolates, pre-sented in attrac-tive, wooden gift boxes. Beyond the chocolate bou-tique, discover our cafe's inviting, con-tinental ambience.

Vintage charm and stylish chocolat-inspired decor provide the perfect backdrop for great coffee & conversation, a relaxed lunch, after-noon tea or one of our indulgent hot chocolates! We offer quality coffee and speciality tea infusions, alongside our traditional 'a' l'ancienne' dark, white, hazelnut, dark soya and intense "Caliente" chilli chocolate drinks. You'll also find a delicious menu of soups, gourmet panini, crepes and tempt-

ing home-made sweet treats, including chocolate scones and our signature chocolate cake. In summer sunshine, relax in our sheltered courtyard garden. On chilly days, enjoy the warming stove fire and subtle cinnamon aromas.

Whether you're unwinding after a coastal walk, spend-ing a day with friends or escaping for 'time out', The Cocoa Tree Cafe & Pitten-weem Chocolate Company is an idyllic, all-season re-treat on Scotland's beautiful east coast. Open 7 days.

Free WIFI. High Chairs, Baby Changing Facilities - Child Friendly! Find us on the High Street, Pittenweem, KY10 2LA. We’re between the harbour and the A917 coastal route. Tel: 01333 311495. Find out more about our cafe, chocolate shop, online shop and occa-sional events - including theme dinners and chocolate workshops - at www.thecocoatreeshop.com or 'like' our facebook page - The Cocoa Tree Cafe.


Crail Harbour Gallery and Tearoom Well not so much snow this year, which has helped our numbers in low season, and I can put the car chains away for another year ! The Crail Food Festival was a great success and brought in visitors from far and away that would not normally have come to Crail….and hopefully will be back ! We plan to run another food festival this year.

Having been open 7 days for 10 months last year....we are looking at ways of keeping our business open through December, which should be a good month to trade for gifts and Hot Chocolates !

I am pleased to report that the new LED lighting system has proved and great investment, not only do the bulbs never get hot and seldom need replacing our reduced electricity bill is very welcome, given that energy prices only ever seem to go up !

Thanks to James for some very useful pointers on Facebook and Twitter, we

are planning to setup the business on these social networking sites….ever more im-portant to keep con-nected in these chal-lenging times !

We are looking at ways of getting soup onto our menu for the colder periods …. cer-tainly is requested on a regular basis, our chal-lenge is to find the space in our kitchen so that we can offer a few varieties….some clever DIY may be needed !

We are also looking around for addi-tional local fish and shell fish suppliers, given our location and the increasing well known benefits of fish to the diet !

I am also very please to advise that the Gallery/Tearoom is now listed in Peter Irvine’s Scotland the Best directory.

Above the Gallery we have a luxury cot-tage for rent (MayView), this has been restored with the same care as the Gal-lery and accommodates up to two adults and one small child. Full infor-mation on MayView is at www.crailholidaycottages.co.uk

“bespoke chocolate

range - hand-made in

Pittenweem”

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Conveniently situated between Dundee to the north and just 20 minutes from St Andrews the Drumoig Golf Hotel, now under new ownership, has been extensively re-furbished in the last 18 months. The hotel has 29 spacious rooms all en-suite which have been upgraded. The golf bar has been taste-fully extended and is no longer part of the south-facing function room which is

still large enough to handle weddings and parties of up to 80 people. A fully equipped meeting room on the upper floor is also available for business ac-tivities. All areas are easily accessible for the disabled.

The golf course. opened in 1996 has been dramatically improved, too, not least at the 18th. where the former par 3 is being replaced by a

challenging dog-leg par 4 . This will provide a grandstand finish to a green protected by water on two sides and overlooked by the hotel. This alteration, along with a reshaped 12th. hole will stretch the course to over 6450 yards. Built largely on sand the course is seldom closed during the win-ter. Several package deals are avail-

able at the pay and play resort includ-ing the popular one night, two rounds offer in which golfers have the opportu-nity to play, stay and play again the following day.

For further details about the hotel and golf course con-tact Alex Wilson, the sales and marketing director who is available on 07780 551372. Lynne Smith is the hotel manageress and infor-mation regarding room book-

ings and functions can be obtained from her on 01382 . or by accessing

[email protected]. Fuller details on the hotel and golf course are a v a i l a b l e o n t h e w e b s i t e www.drumoiggolfhotel.com

Horticultural highlights attract visitors throughout the year.

Now in its third year, the Tulip Festival sponsored by suppliers Bloms Bulbs is looking set to follow on the success of the Snowdrop Festival at Cambo Gardens near Kingsbarns. In former years the annual beds and renowned potager beds had little, if nothing, to show in late April early May when the rest of the garden was ablaze with spring bulbs and colour. Now, however, the thousands of bulbs supplied by Bloms Bulbs are planted in these areas, providing brilliant splashes of colour and a stunning vari-ety of tulips. As these go over,

the thousands of seeds planted by the Cambo gardeners are ready to be

planted in whatever artistic spectacle Head Gardener, Elli-ott Forsyth, has created for the current year. Tubs of tulips also brighten up other corners of the gardens and house and Bloms create an additional magnifi-cent display of hundreds of cut blooms.

The gardens are also home to an often overlooked collection of historic roses and a magnifi-cent collection of over 100 ram-

blers and climbers which scramble through and over mature trees, deco-

rate pergolas, ropes and bridges and bring a won-derful scent to the gar-den.

Elliott will be holding two workshops during the summer, one an in-depth look at the key elements of designing a small garden, including ideas on planning the layout, advice on plant

selection and arrangement. His second talk will be in the company of renowned garden/planting designer and horticul-tural consultant, Noel Kingsbury who is

also a prolific garden writer/journalist.

During August and September his flam-boyant ornamental potager flourishes, incorporating a bold new design each year, and Cambo’s new American Prai-rie is also at its height.

Colour lingers in the garden until the end of the year when the maturing win-ter garden creates a link with the forth-coming snowdrops.

Garden events, arts and environmental workshops, an Octoberfest and Christ-mas Fair also punctuate the year, creat-ing opportunities for visitors both to the

gardens and to accommodation in the local area.

The Drumoig Golf Hotel and Course

Cambo Gardens


“Drumoig Golf Hotel, now under new ownership”

“Now in its third year, the Tulip

Festival sponsored by suppliers Bloms Bulbs is looking set

to follow on the success of the

Snowdrop Festival“

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Fisher Studio & Gallery, High St Pittenweem

The Fisher Gallery is dedicated to show-ing a variety of original work by mainly Scottish artists and crafts persons. We exhibit both established artists and promising young graduates.

The season of exhibitions begins on 31 March with our Easter Exhibition show-ing paintings by Jan Fisher, James Fra-ser, Bella Green, Jean Hall and Claudia Massie. Also a wide range of pottery, studio glass, wood-work and enamel-work by mainly Scottish craft-workers, plus a large portfolio of limited edition prints of Fife landscapes by Anna & Jan Fisher. The exhibition will continue with a change of artists, until 25 July.

The Fisher Gallery Festival Exhibition will again be housed in the usual gallery and across the road at Fisher Gallery 2,

enabling us to show larger works by some of our regular artists. The Exhi-bition will in-clude new work by Anna Fisher, James Fraser, George Gilbert, Bella Green, George Birrell, Claudia Massie, Elaine Allison, Maralyn Reed-Wood and resident artist,

Jan Fisher.

The exhibition will continue for another

week after the Festival until August 12, when we will close Fisher 2 and re-hang a condensed show in the usual gallery.

For more information about current exhibitions, please refer to our website www.fishergallery.co.uk or call 01333 312255. If you would like to receive invitations and news via email please g e t i n t o u c h a t e n [email protected]

The Fisher Studio & Gallery is open 10-5 every day (closed Tuesdays). Winter opening times will be posted on the website in September.


The Scottish Shop, South Street, St Andrews The Scottish Shop, located on South Street offers a wide collection of souve-nirs, clothing and accessories, all with that essential Scottish flair. The family run business has been trading in St Andrews for 10 years and takes pride in its trained staff, who really know their products and are always happy to help.

A range of kilts, sporrans and sashes are available in stock, and thanks to a

very close working relation-ship with their supplier’s, The Scottish Shop can arrange to have your new kilt outfit made-to-measure, in your clan tartan. Please do not hesitate to ask for anything you are looking for.

The business also has 2 shops in Pitlochry, which

means that if you can-not find what you are looking for, it is worth-while asking, as there is a strong possibility that the perfect item is nearby and can be brought to St Andrews within days or posted directly to you.

“A range of kilts, sporrans

and sashes are available in

stock,”

“Regulars to the Pittenweem Arts Festival please note that the dates of the Festival have been moved

forward one week this year to July 28 – August 5”.

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Sea Eagle Adventures Sea Eagle Adventures are delighted to be up and running (or sailing!!) with fast boat trips out of Anstruther harbour for the 2012 summer season. The boat, Sea Eagle, is a 22 foot Rigid Inflatable that is already in use during March as-sisting Scottish Natural Heri-tage with their return to the Island of May National Na-ture Reserve, where the SNH Staff take up residence from April until October each year. Sea Eagle Adventures will be running small group fast boat trips around the island for up to six passen-gers at a time, between April and September, starting Easter Sun-day.

These exhilarating 90 minute trips will travel at speed across the 5 miles to the island then cruise at leisure along-side the spectacular cliffs and around

the gently sloping east side of the is-land. Most of the trips are non-landing, how-ever on around 4 days each month, special

landing trips are planned when visi-tors will have a guided tour (by Skipper Neil) of this historic and fascinating island. Please check the website for dates

and times. Early booking is recom-mended!!

All trips are weather permitting, though we do provide waterproof suits and of course lifejackets. The trips will be de-parting daily from the RNLI pier at An-

struther, times are varied and can in-clude early evening departures, return-ing to the harbour into the sun-set...... For further details see www.seaeagleadventures.co.uk

Tel. 07873 269780.


The Griselda Hill ‘Wemyss’ Pottery News for 2012

‘Wemyss Ware’ Exhibition in St Andrews

The Pottery launches into the new sea-son in style, with the start of an exciting exhibition at the St Andrews Museum in Kinburn Park, St Andrews, entitled ‘Wemyss ® and Other Wares’. This exhibition focuses on the famous We-myss Ware® and other 19th century Kirkcaldy potteries, and how Wemyss Ware® has been revived by the

Griselda Hill Pottery Ltd.

This exciting view into the history of Scotland’s most famous and historic Pottery runs from 17th March until 13th May. Griselda and her staff have pro-vided items of pottery, tools, historic pieces from the Ceres Visitor Centre and images to help create this colourful new exhibition . Curated by postgradu-ate Museum and Gallery Studies stu-dents at the University of St Andrews, the exhibition also features beautiful Wemyss Ware® from the collections of Fife Council Museums.

Painters from the Ceres ‘Wemyss’® Pottery will be doing a demonstration at the Museum on 7th April from 1pm until 3.30pm.

The exhibition’s website is at http://www-ah.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/WemyssandOtherWares/Welcome.html

Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee

“The Pottery launches into the

new season in style, with the start

of an exciting exhibition at the St Andrews Museum in Kinburn Park,

St Andrews”,

“Sea Eagle Adventures will

be running small group fast

boat trips around the

island ”.

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The Jerdan Gallery Notwithstanding, we have a wonderful series of exhibitions featuring James Harrigan in spring, George Birrell and Tom Allan in May/June, John Bathgate and Illona Morrice in June/July, Muriel Barclay in August and Philip Raskin in the autumn.

They are all fabulous artists and viewing is highly recommended!

June will also be the 10th anniver-sary of the opening of the gallery and we are having a special pre-view on 22 June when the fabu-lous Rich Young will be providing musical entertainment.

For those who love our sculpture garden there is an opportunity to see our full garden when we open it once again as part of Crail Small Gar-dens on 21st and 22nd July.


FaceBook to be bigger than Google! All the pundits, indeed Google itself acknowledges that FaceBook will, in the long term be more important than Google. Google tried to buy FaceBook, having failed, launched Google+, their FaceBook equivalent.

Any business not on FaceBook is loos-ing out!

FaceBook does not cost anything, other than a small amount of time and or-ganisation each day. If you want to get started on FaceBook we have a sheet we can e-mail you, taking you through the basic steps to get you started.

So what is FaceBook – for those not involved?

How many of you have read the news-paper horror stories (remember news-papers have a vested interested in FaceBook not working, as their sales continue to drop). I say ‘A long time ago there was a thing you bought called a newspaper. The paper was full of sto-ries some you were interested in some you were not. Depending on which pa-per you bought the stories were skewed to the left or to the right. Well today we have FaceBook, you choose what you are interested in and ‘Like’ that busi-ness, football team, your local butcher etc. So when they write something on their FaceBook Wall it comes to you, no one twisting the story. You choose what you are interested in and FaceBook

does the rest. Your customers will be interested in your business too. Face-Book is an easy affordable way of keep-ing them up to date.

Explore FaceBook – keep up to date with your area news.

We now have FaceBook and Twitter and are actively communicating and promoting your area of Scotland. So please join us and lets work together and tell as many people as possible what a great area it is.

http://www.facebook.com/ExploreStAndrews

“Note for 2013!

I must remember to submit an entry for the 2013 Newsletter!

This is free advertising, getting the message to all local businesses, at the start of the new season”.

This space could have been yours!!!

“This is our last full year in

business as we plan to retire at

the end of October”.

st andrews start of the season newsletter 2012

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