Ackergill Tower: Heaven on Earth

There is a reason you haven’t seen any new postings from me lately . My family took a lovely vacation in the United Kingdom , where we had a lovely time in England and Scotland.

The trip was great fun in many ways, but the highlight was the six days we spent celebrating my father-in-law’s 75^th birthday at the beautiful Ackergill Tower. -- see the picture, it really is that beautiful.

He was kind enough to rent an old –- but extremely well-restored -- Scottish “castle” for the family.  Ackergill is almost as far north as you can get in the United Kingdom , and was beautiful. I was expecting something kind run down, but it was better than any 5 star hotel I’ve ever stayed in, as the people who run the place were warm and went so far out of their way to make sure that we had a great experience… doing everything from organizing a troop of bagpipers for our final dinner to an exhibition of sheep herding that involved 4 dogs and 16 sheep, just for our group of about 20. The Ackergill Tower isn’t easy to get to – requiring at least 3 planes from the U.S,  Or it requires an 7 hour drive from Edinburgh, but I’d do it again in a minute. The people were charming and authentic (it doesn’t take long to get them talking about the evils of British), and we were taken by watching John, one of the owners, go out in his little boat less than 100 yards from our room and pull up his lobster pots --- and then eating them for dinner a few hours later. The weather was cold and stormy, but the people were so delightful that we didn’t mind it a bit, and we quickly learned to follow the Scottish motto “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

For the final formal dinner, we dressed in kilts (that’s my picture, before everything started falling off during the dancing) and had a performance from a group of bagpipers from nearby Wick. And the dinner started with a minister who did the official blessing of the haggis (which tasted remarkably good despite my reservations about eating a dish composed of organ meats and cooked in sheep’s stomach). And – of course – the minister’s blessing  was accompanied by a bagpiper.

I will start blogging about workplace issues again, but our experience in the Ackergill Tower highlights an important lesson. It reminded me that we live in an era where people talk about “designing experiences” and “authentic and caring service,”  but these are hollow words usually uttered in an effort to extract money from us by greedy people who don’t really mean the words and who may not understand what the words mean (I am thinking, in particular, of some experiences I’ve had at a couple Ritz-Carlton’s where they print all the rhetoric, but the primary aim of most interactions with most staff members seems to be to get as big a tip out of you as possible.)  No matter how much – or little – you pay for a place to stay, it is impossible to create that authentic warmth and caring that we experienced at Ackergill without people in charge – and dedicated staff -- who really care about their guests.

Well, my family is back to reality. The kids are starting school and we have jobs and all that, but is sure was nice to get away.  I don’t expect that I will ever stay in a place as nice as Ackergill again, as nothing before it really came close, but I can hope!

Comments

[Peter A. Mello]

Nice kilt but how "authentic" did you go? ;-)

http://www.realmenwearkilts.net/what.html

My wife and I went to Scotland for our honeymoon and played some of the most amazing golf courses in the world. Went as far North as Royal Dornoch and stayed in the castle there. Agrre that it's a beautiful country with wonderful people.

[Pamela Slim]

Welcome back Bob!

I was wondering where you were off to, as I hadn't seen much posting. How nice that you and the family were on vacation ... so much better than all the hard work you have been doing lately! :)

Scotland is on my list, whenever the kids get old enough to travel that far. My maiden name is Stewart, so I know we have a plaid pattern there, and probably a distant relative or two.

My husband Darryl and I laugh that our very divergent backgrounds (his Navajo, mine from 5 generations back in the UK) connect over sheep entrails, which our relatives both consider a prime meal.

Thanks for a refreshing look into a great vacation experience!

-Pam