A Highland “glamping guru” has picked up a unique award for bending rules when it comes to offering unusual retreats for tourists. Walter Micklethwait, who along with his mum Lucy owns Inshriach House in the Cairngorms National Park, has been dubbed as “Trailblazer of the Year” by a tourism booking service that specialises in glamorous camping – or “glamping” – venues.
The 200-acre estate outside of Aviemore offers visitors a Yurt, a former fire service truck and cozy shepherd’s hut as places to stay for visitors looking for something different.
The award from Sawday’s Canopy & Stars recognises “a pioneering owner who has gone out of their way to do their own thing and who has created a truly special place and experience”.
The judges panel, which included Sawday’s founders Alastair and Toby Sawday, along with travel editors Ben Ross and Columba Colivet, unanimously agreed on Mr Micklethwait as “someone who has bent rules, shown creativity and taken risks”.
Mr Micklethwait, a former antiques dealer turned set designer and all-round handyman, has fitted out the Yurt, the bothy, Beermoth fire truck – as well as a sauna in a horsebox – himself.
Toby Sawday said: “Walter finds things and then makes things. This could very well be a lifetime trailblazing achievement award, such is his track record for the ‘how/why on earth did he do that’ . . . but 2014 has been a particularly busy year.
“It started by slowly dismantling an old Victorian train station, and moving it to Inshriach, where once rebuilt it will become a recording studio and workshop space.
“In spring, Walter launched a sauna in an old horsebox – handmade, of course – to sit alongside his growing collection of Canopy & Stars glamping spaces, and later this month, Walter plans to pick his first crop of junipers which will be turned into gin at Scotland’s newest, and smallest, distillery.”
Mr Micklethwait said: “We are delighted to have won this award, it’s been a lot of fun developing this business; it has brought a lot of creativity and entertainment, a heap of good people and has allowed us to hang on to Inshriach through some difficult times. It’s lovely to see that there may yet be sense in our nonsense.”