When the Blower family decided to relocate to the wild and rugged west coast of Scotland, they turned to The Cumberland for help to fund their luxury self-catering accommodation business, Cairn Lodges, located in Morar, Scotland.
Darren Blower, 35, began exploring the idyllic beaches and soaring mountains of the coastline between the remote communities of Morar and Arisaig on family holidays with dad, Joe and mum, Vanessa.
The family, who originated from Greater Manchester, fell so in love with the area that they built a home there which they also rent out as a self-catering property. Joe and Vanessa then built another property to live in when they moved the area permanently nine years ago.
They now operate Western Isle Cruises, based in Mallaig, which runs daily ferry services to the remote communities of Knoydart and Tarbet, as well as other boat trips.
"It provides a lifeline service three times a day, in and out, taking tourists across and taking freight to the local restaurants and delivering all the post," says Darren.
Last year Darren and wife Josephine took the plunge and left their home in Stockport, where he worked as product manager for building control systems, to move to Scotland permanently with their two children Oscar, five, and Olivia, three.
The family had bought around 15 acres of land from friends 25 years ago and Darren and Josephine were granted planning permission to build eight lodges there in December. At the beginning of April they opened the site to the public with four luxury self-catering lodges on the beautiful B8008 coast road.
The site is within five minutes of the famous white sands of Camusdarach, Silversands and Traigh beaches, with stunning views across the sea to the spectacular Cuillin mountains of the Isle of Skye and the Hebridean islands of Eigg and Rum.
"People are attracted by the white sandy beaches, blue sea, breathtaking scenery and incredible seafood,” says Darren.
The timber lodges - one with one bed, one with two beds and two with three beds - are purpose designed and built, with wooden interiors, leather sofas and granite work-tops. They are also complete with underfloor heating, air source heat pumps and grass roofs to provide natural insulation.
"We've got log stoves and we've got log burning hot tubs as well, so we're not using electricity keeping the hot tub constantly running," says Darren.
"There's no chemicals either so there's no chlorine going into the local watercourses. It's just fresh water that's being reused.”
Even the logs which the site burns are sourced from local sustainable woodlands.
“People are very conscious of making their holidays as sustainable as possible,” says Darren.
“We wanted to create an experience where people can enjoy all the comforts of luxury accommodation, but in a really wild setting and in a way that benefits the local environment and people.”
The Cumberland provided £975,000 finance to support the development of Cairn Lodges, helping the couple to convert the high-interest loan they took out to construct the lodges into a more manageable mortgage, as well as lending them some extra funds to complete the build.
"We decided to go with The Cumberland because we saw examples of some of the other projects and businesses they had helped before and we thought this would be just the kind of thing they'd like to invest in," says Darren.
“They've been great. Very, very easy to work with and very helpful. They've given us lots of tips along the way as we've gone through the mortgage process.
“It’s a big learning curve for us at the moment, but we’re very hands-on and we just try to make sure we’re providing as good an experience as we can for our guests.
“So far the bookings for the year are looking really healthy and we’re just looking forward to the summer and enjoying the challenge of running a new business and helping people enjoy this incredible part of the world.
“We’ve got permission for eight lodges and so in the next few years we’ll be in conversations with The Cumberland about building some more and hopefully working with them to continue that pipeline of growth.
"Living up here is just perfect. It's great for the kids, there's so much fun stuff to do and it's a
fantastic lifestyle."
Stuart McNaughton, relationship manager with The Cumberland, has visited the development and described it as ‘absolutely stunning’.
“The customer was able to clearly demonstrate outstanding forward bookings which clearly showed demand and allowed us to put in place a funding package totalling £975k.