Children at Ormidale
The houses are designed with the ambition of being the best equipped for children that you will find, anywhere, ever. We holiday with children in self-catering houses ourselves, and we know that happy kids make for relaxed parents. With a swimming pool opened in 2008 and tennis court opening for summer 2009, trampolines and a commercial sized bouncy castle, and with twenty five bikes on the estate, we hope we have some of the best facilities you could look for.
Each house has a separate TV room (or two) away from the adult sitting room. The Old Barn and The Mill House share a games cottage with darts, table tennis and pool table. The Mill House has a separate playroom.
We are sure we haven’t thought of everything but we’ve tried to. So as well as the TVs and DVDs, library of books, paper and pens, we’ve spent a small fortune on table football, darts, air hockey, table tennis, pool , and board games.
The gardens and woods, with a ruined witch’s cottage, abandoned quarry (sadly no mine-shafts), fairy glades, stream, waterfall, and lochan, are one big adventure playgound for children of virtually any age. Trees are for climbing and falling off, rivers for crossing and falling into… the most fantastic games of hide and seek and sardines have been played in the house and gardens.
For those who want a slightly more controlled environment, we are building two wooden play areas – for smaller and bigger kids - into the woods during the course of 2009. Swings, climbing walls, monkey bars, zip wires, rope ladders, etc. All of these will of course, like the bikes and bouncy castle, swimming pool and dart board, be used at the family’s own risk.
We are only a mile or so from the edge of the Kyles of Bute, and the stony shore there is fine to while away some time. There’s a fantastic big sandy beach at Kilbride Bay, about a twenty minute drive away through Tighnabruich and Kames – great for picnics or barbecues, games of cricket, swimming, and sandcastles, about a three quarter of a mile treck down a pretty path from the road. The west side of Bute also has a host of sandy beaches if you are doing a day over on the island. Just near Kilbride beach, at Ardlamont, there is a new playbarn cum craftbarn which is not just child-friendly, but child-centred – you can even leave the kids for an hour or two or an afternoon doing a variety of different crafts while enjoying some adult time. |
