Trareoch Crafts was started at Trareoch house originally a hotel, 2 miles south of Whiting Bay by Marjorie Curzons, it was a very small shop in an outbuilding selling unusual crafts many made by Marjorie herself.

It soon became clear that the shop was out growing it's current home so the decision was taken to convert part of the house which at one time had been the hotel function room into a shop and tearoom so the old shop was turned into the toilet block for said tearoom - waste not want not!

 

The business continued in this form for 8 years. Marjorie was joined during this time by her daughter Karen (me!) who left school and ran the tearoom. It went very well but the hours were long and with not very many breaks we decided that the business had grown too big for us to cope with alone so sadly the tearoom closed and we then discovered Balmichael and decided to make the leap. I have to admit it was lovely to get the house back to being just us and no one else around - peace and quiet! (selfish I know!)

 

And so it continued Marjorie ran the shop at Balmichael for 8 years with just a bit of help from me as by this stage I had gone to work full time for Graeme at Arran Domestic Service Centre in Brodick (If you need a new washing machine, fridge etc or something repaired this is the place to go!) Then in 2006 Marjorie had to go into hospital to have major heart surgery so I left Arran Domestics and took over the running of the shop, Marjorie recovered well from her surgery and returned to run the shop in the winter of 2006.  Sadly I had just taken over for the summer season 2007 when she suddenly died, a shock to everyone that knew her especially me but she had always said that you just have to get on with it in life and take the cards you are dealt. Never one for feeling sorry for herself so I decided to try and do the same and keep the business running (I think she would have come back and haunted me otherwise!!)

 

So this is where we are now, spring 2008 and gearing up for another summer season - looking forward to catching up with many regular customers and hopefully some new ones. See you there!

 

I still live at Trareoch in Whiting Bay and will be letting part of the property out for selfcatering in the summer months, It is still a project at the moment as life is pretty busy but I think it will be sleeping around 6 - 8 so If you would like some details please drop me an e.mail.