Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Cawdor pub ‘loses thousands of pounds’ during road closure at start of tourist season

Christine Sinclair of the Cawdor Tavern who is concerned over the loss of business during the closure of the road at White Bridge for construction work.
Christine Sinclair of the Cawdor Tavern who is concerned over the loss of business during the closure of the road at White Bridge for construction work.

The owners of a popular Highland village bar and restaurant claim to have lost thousands of pounds in trade in the first few weeks of the tourist season due to roadworks on a vital road.

Norman and Christine Sinclair have for 25 years owned Cawdor Tavern, on the outskirts of Inverness and next to the famous castle with links to Shakespeare’s Macbeth – and describe this month as being “the most difficult trading conditions yet”.

Their main access road B9090 has been closed for three weeks due to the end stages of a major Highland Council infrastructure project at Whitebridge.

The new bridge replaces the old Wades bridge which was beginning to fail due to age and the volume of use.

Mrs Sinclair said: “The contractors, R J Macleod, have worked tremendously well but I am astonished at the council allowing the road to be closed for three weeks without any consultation with local businesses on the impact this may have.

“I have no issue with the need for a new bridge and that there would be some inconvenience to the motoring public but a total closure for three weeks is just too much for rural business like ours to cope with.

She added: “The detour put in place takes people so far around and about that it has affected business. Several of our larger parties have had to cancel due to the added time implications coming from Inverness.

“There have been half a dozen cruise ships in Invergordon over this period which usually would have given us an opportunity for extra lunch trade.

“Passing trade is diverted so far round that they would never find their way to Cawdor. Even the traffic leaving Cawdor Castle are diverted right, away from the village, and so Cawdor Tavern and Cawdor village shop are missed altogether.”

She said: “I believe the local authority has poorly managed the final stages of this project.

“It is no secret that rural pub businesses are finding things tough so to cut our main access route for three trading weeks in May has cost us in excess of £12,000 of sales as compared to the same period last year.

“This is very hard on a business which employs 19 local staff. It is also frustrating that there is no evening or weekend work being done to speed up the project.

A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “This project itself is actually well ahead of programme. We anticipate the road will be open as of lunchtime [today], which is two days prior to the end of notified closure period.

“We have been in close contact with the local community throughout the works and would like to thank everyone for their understanding and patience. We have tried to keep any disruption to a minimum and apologise for any disruption.”