Tig Cottage Holiday Home

21/11/2024

How about doing something moire fun instead?

12/11/2024

Humphrey goes to Tig three or four times a year. It’s his favourite place - with doggy ice cream at the beach at Girvan being his second favourite!

Today is Humphrey’s birthday - he’s not been able to celebrate by going to Tig, but he’s been spoilt rotten anyway.

Spoil yourself - or your furry family - with a trip to Tig. Dates left in December - but 2025 is filling up fast!

10/11/2024

Looks like Mr Mallett isn't too far from Tig Cottage. It'll be interesting to see if he heads up in South Ayrshire.

Want to get there before he does? We have four days left for November, and some in December too, if you fancy a bit of a breather before the big rush of Christmas.

07/11/2024

So many of our guests tell us how they find peace at Tig.
Experience it for yourself by booking your stay today!

21/10/2024

Well look at that!
Here we are on the DogFriendly Awards finalists lists!

The other properties are much fancier than little ol’ Tig, but it’s still a huge honour and thank you everyone who voted for us!

17/10/2024

South Ayrshire is home to one of nicest long distance walks in Scotland, the Ayrshire Coastal Path.

Why is this path so special?
Well, unlike some other long distance paths, you’re never too far from civilisation - no need for camping in the middle of nowhere (unless you want to) and while it can be done as a single walk (with either camping or accommodation overnight), it can also be done in lovely day length sections too.

Although there’s been an official guidebook for the route, it’s not always been easy to find information online - but now there’s a spangly new website!

Check it out here: www.ayrshirecoastalpath.org - and yes, Tig is very near the start!

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15/10/2024

The Stranraer Oyster Festival is always popular with our guests! Next year's dates and information have been announced - and right now you're in luck - Tig Cottage is still available and booking is open for Oyster Festival Weekend, so shuck on over to our site and book your stay now!

⭐️ A BIG welcome from all of us at Stranraer Oyster Festival to those who have recently found us as a result of BBC Countryfile! ⭐️

We have received lots of questions about next year's festival, so here's a quick round up of everything you need to know!

🦪 Stranraer Oyster Festival 2025 will take place from 12-14 September 2025
🦪 Tickets will go on sale in the spring, probably April 2025
🦪 Want to be the first to hear? Sign up for the festival newsletter on our website
🦪 Applications for trading spaces will also open in the spring
🦪 Want to compete in the ShuckOff? Full details are on our website
🦪 If you're planning to visit the festival and need overnight accommodation, please book early

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and support.

We were thrilled that Countryfile visited the festival and told the story of our community and our oysters so magnificently.

www.stranraeroysterfestival.com

10/10/2024

How to spot a holiday home owner on holiday….

30/09/2024

Here's a little secret....
we don't get many cancellations at Tig.
Once people book, they almost always come to stay.

We open up bookings for Tig about a year in advance.
So if you know when you want to stay, make sure you book early.

Or - a top secret tip - if the dates you want aren't available yet, drop us an email at [email protected]....you can either book direct with us, or let me know what dates you're looking for, and I'll let you know when those dates are up on booking dot com

29/09/2024

We’ve been looking forward to sharing this for ages! Our first published review!

23/09/2024

When we go on holiday, we book accommodation that has a "free cancellation" option. It's much more sensible.

But as hosts, we LOVE it when someone books a non-refundable stay. It means we can plan our bills, and our maintenance, and our improvements. It means buying those big red gas canisters isn't quite as scary!

So to encourage people to book a non-refundable stay, we sweeten the deal.
When you book a non-refundable stay, you get a better price.
And you still don't have to pay until you stay.
And it makes us very very happy indeed.

We love everyone who comes to stay.
But we love you just a little more when you book a non-refundable stay 😆

20/09/2024

Some times of the year we make a big deal about the smells around Tig Cottage. Like in Spring, when the wild garlic is in bloom, or in the summer, when you're on the beach and you can smell the seaside, or when you go for a walk in the forests and you can smell all the plants and trees and the glorious fresh air.

But we are now coming into "Farm Smell Time" - when the much needed fertiliser can be smelt anywhere there's farmland. Well, that's an exaggeration. It's not all the time, and it's not for long - but we have no control over where the wind blows.

Tig - being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farmland - does get some of this smell...but because we have a septic tank, occasionally we get guests think the smell must be the septic tank.

In the very early days (before our lovely new septic tank!) we had a problem with the tank once. And once you've smelt a dodgy tank, you definitely know it smells different from Farm Smell! It sounds wrong to get excited about a septic tank, but we have a Very Good Tank indeed, and we use Very Good Bacteria in it (the bacteria "eats" the smell), so we're pretty sure we can say "it's not us!" but of course it's difficult to say "no, it's a different p**p you can smell!"

So for the next little bit of time we shall just have to hope we have guests who are used to Farm Smells...or who have no sense of smell!

18/09/2024

When I was little, I had a doll’s house, just like this one. I would spend hours rearranging the furniture until it was “just perfect”, before changing my mind the next day.

Sometimes, we call Tig “the doll’s house”. We look to make it as perfect as possible - the ideal space for our guests to relax with all the comforts of home without the mess and clutter that most of us have!

There’s things I’d like to change - a dishwasher would be great, but there’s no room, fencing off the whole garden would be helpful for dog owners but terrible for our local wildlife, and a hot tub would be luxurious but would bump up the price too much.

If you choose to come and stay with us, we hope you’ll find everything that as you need - and want - it, and that you’ll remember your stay as fondly as I remember my doll’s house!

16/09/2024

So copywriting rules are that we should have three top selling points about Tig Cottage that will make people want to book their stay.

But it's almost impossible to choose what three are the best!

Is it the fabulously remote location, nestled in the heart of the Stinchar Valley?

Is it the Water of Tig that burbles and sings through the back garden?

Is it that so many guests say that Tig feels just like a home away from home?

Is it the nearby beaches - both the beautifully wild beaches at Ballantrae and the seaside-y sandy beach at Ballantrae, or the further afield beaches at Maidens, Ayr, Largs....

Is it the walks - the coastal walks, the hillside walks, the walks around the Galloway Forest or gorgeous, remote villages and towns?

Or is it the way that you just feel calm, relaxed and happy when you're there?

What is it that makes Tig so great for you?

15/09/2024

Well, the dreaded day has come.
Our brave little Nespresso machine has given up the ghost.
So it's time to get a new one!

It can be quite tricky choosing equipment for Tig. I'm always reminded of the guest who was quite upset we didn't have a pizza cutter. I would have been upset too, but we did have one - a very modern "Joseph Joseph" one that is a wheel with a circular handle, rather than a traditional looking pizza cutter.

I'd been quite impressed when I bought it...but hadn't taken the time to think about whether it was really suitable for a holiday home where I couldn't just pop up and go, "look, there it is!"

So the same is true for our coffee machine - it's got to be something suitable.

We can't have a machine that uses coffee beans, because the coffee grounds that are left can't go down the sink without blocking the septic tank (and we know how easy it would be to forget and just tip them down the sink). It's what puts us off offering a cafetière, too, even though Trae Bakes at Craigiemains Garden Centre has locally roasted coffee that would be lovely to offer.

I was very tempted by the latest Illy machines - but the machines are very much a "read the manual first" - and who wants to do that on holiday? Plus, they're quite delicate, and I'd hate for a guest to be in need of their morning coffee only to find the machine came apart in their hands.

I currently have a Philips L'Or Barista coffee machine here at home. It's not the fastest heating machine in the world, and it's "double spout" (that can fill two small espresso cups at once) is really just good for filling your standard mug in half the time.

But it's sturdy (I mean, REALLY sturdy), and the water reservoir is easy to fill and replace. The capsules are really easy to use and its not at all fussy - it'll take any Nespresso compatible capsules, meaning guests can bring their own if they have a particular favourite (we have a variety but we don't have everything).

I'll just have to work out a way to warn people that the coffee machine can be a bit slow in the morning...but then, aren't we all?