Last weekend we ran our first Hen Party of the year for a group of 7, from all over Britain, some flew, some came by train and others drove. We picked half the group up from Inverness and met the rest at their accommodation for the weekend, Kerrow House.
I had prepared and left supper for them on Friday night and left them to catch up with each other. The next morning we picked everyone up at 10am and went up to the woods. The morning was spent building an outdoor pit oven and preparing their evening feast, lighting fires, lining the stone oven and enjoying the sunshine. Some of the group worked on the hen’s wall hanging, carding and laying out fleece ready to be felted later in the day. We cooked lunch outside over an open fire and then enjoyed it in the cosy Mongolian Ger (Yurt).
After lunch we took our fleece hanging out the Cougie trekking centre, a beautiful drive into the wilderness! Once there everyone met Ian and his boys as well as Nutmeg the pony. We prepared and rolled up the wall hanging, ready for Nutmeg to pull it along Mongolian style. This type of felting is a great fun way of making larger pieces of decorative felt.
The group decided to go for a walk while Nutmeg got on with the felting. A stunning walk out to see the mountain views. The group could have chosen to go on a pony trek but decided to walk instead, as one of the members was heavily pregnant.
After a couple of hours and a lovely relaxing time by the edge of the loch, we returned and the wall hanging was revealed. A beautiful piece of felt made by all of our hens friends!
We headed back to Kerrow house, which was welcomingly warm and cosy, where I left the group, to relax and enjoy a glass of wine, cups of tea and G&T’s. Later we uncovered the pit oven and took out our feast which had slowly cooked over 5 hours. The lamb had been wrapped in dough, which had sealed in all the juices making it tender and delicious and the vegetables had cooked beautifully, sealed in a cast iron 
pot. The group snuggled down in the yurt for a candlelit feast.
The next day our hens enjoyed a relaxing morning at Kerrow house and then we headed out to glen Affric, where we went walking. There was a covering of snow, which made the glen look even more magical.
That evening the group had dinner at the Struy Inn and enjoyed the sounds of a local music session.We dropped the group off in Inverness on Monday morning.
It was a lovely start to our season and a real joy to meet everyone and organize Christina’s hen do. If you would like to find out more about our Alternative Hen weekends please have a look at the main website.
