Eriska's first scottish thistle award

Last night we attended the Scottish Thistle Awards in Edinburgh. These awards come at the end of the traditional "summer" season and represent the highlight of the tourism provider calender with all thiose involved in teh uindustry collecting at the EICC and the annoncement of the winners. earlier tis year we were thrilled to have been selected as one of the finalists and throughout the evening we were continually reminded that not only was taking part an honour but that being selceted as a finalsit was a reward for all our hard work.

VisitScotland’s Regional Director, Scott Armstrong, stated that: “The Scottish Thistle Awards give us a great opportunity to showcase the very highest quality tourism businesses from the Highlands. I’m delighted to see Highland businesses shortlisted in this year’s Awards and the fact that they have been finalists and winners in previous years demonstrates the quality and consistency of the visitor experience in the Highlands."

However after waiting in anticiaption the name of Eriska was called out and we collected the wonderfuul statuette of a Thistle for the Taste of Scotland Category. After the ceremony we had a chance to mix and mingle with otehr finalsist and meet the judges. It soon became clear what highlighted Eriska for the award in the eyes of the judges. Roberts continual persuit of the best local fresh produce and his wonderful menus clearly won the day. After being nominated as a fianlsy we had 3 anonymous vsisits from the judges, luckily we had been unaware of these otherwise it would have heightened the pressure, and  then they selected us from a shortlist of three.

Having never won a Thistle award it was a great honour and is a real credit to the all the team who work here at Eriska and certainly spurs us on to continue what we do and how we do it.