Telephone or email Bookings  will remain firm provided we receive a deposit and names of all people in the party within five days (normally we will try to contact you before offering your cottage to someone else)

Booking If for any reason we are unable to accept the booking the deposit will be returned. We reserve the right to refuse or revoke any bookings which in our sole opinion may be unsuitable without giving a reason and no correspondence will be entered into.

Occupation is between 4 and 7 p.m. on Saturday.  We are grateful if you can let us know a few days before you arrive if you expect to arrive at a different time (or day!)  Vacation of the property is by 10.00 a.m. on the day of departure. It is often possible to change these times if you contact us in advance. If you are travelling by train or bus to Taynuilt arrangements can usually be made for you to be met by car (even if it's just for your luggage), please ask.

Heating and Electricity All the holiday accommodation is equipped with one or more night storage radiators to give background warmth and there is one convector heater in each room. All electricity is charged for by meter reading and is paid for as you leave at 10p/kWh.  There is no problem in keeping warm during the winter. Typically in summer  we advice you budget on £10 to £15 per week.  In late spring and early autumn £20 while in autumn, winter and Easter it is more likely to be around £35 to £45 for the cottages, and £60 for the Edwardian Wing (which is very big).

Washing and Drying  Each cottage has a drying rack for drying clothes, and all (except Holly) have an electric towel heater that's also great for drying.  We will do any washing and drying for you in our machines.  It is £4 per load, and it takes double the load of a domestic washing machine.

Welcome Pack - You can order groceries from 'Graham the Grocer's' in advance of your arrival.  Please ring the Manager (Ian Campbell) on 01866 822 248, and he will deliver for free the day you arrive.  He can source all sorts, most people like to order some bread, tea, coffee, eggs, bacon, butter, milk for their arrival.  He does many organic foods as well and has the best range of organic chocolate anywhere. Graham's is open every day of the year except Christmas day.  You pay for your groceries once you are here.

Dogs Well behaved dogs are welcome to stay at an additional charge of £15.00 per week per dog. A maximum of two per cottage or apartment (none at all in the Edwardian Apartment).

Breakages We reserve the right to charge for any breakages or damage done to any property or equipment.

GROUPS - During the main season we do not take any bookings covering more than 2 cottages. When more than one cottage is booked by the same party, the person who has booked takes responsibility for the group adhering to our terms and conditions.  Please do not move furniture or crockery from one cottage to another, as we do not have the facilities to check everything over on a Saturday.  We will supply additional requirements of crockery and furniture, but please discuss this in advance with us.  We reserve the right to charge if we find our possessions have been 'moved around'.  You might like to consider making use of a cleaning and checking service, but this must be booked in advance, and will be done on either Friday or Saturday.

WiFi - We have wireless broadband access from our reception area if you bring your own laptop.  Some of the cottages can pick it up too, Rose, Holly, Etive and Honeysuckle kitchen, but our thick walls are limiting on the range.  Garden you can pick up from the courtyard bedroom, but possibly also in the livingroom.  I haven't yet worked out if the Edwardian Wing can pick it up as our foil backed plasterboard may be blocking the signal. 

We are working towards gaining the STB’s Green Tourism Accreditation at Gold Level.

Bonawe House Environmental Policy

We have had the fortunate opportunity to live and work at Bonawe House in Taynuilt, and be an occupant of this 250 year old building. We see our responsibility to allow the next generations to enjoy this place and its surroundings as much as us. That responsibility means acting and making purchasing and marketing decisions taking the environment into account every step of the way.

We have invested in many energy saving schemes, such as installing loft insulation, draught proofing, hot water tank insulation, energy efficient lightbulbs, energy efficient appliances and timeclocks for the heating. We continue with our efforts on energy efficiency by insulating the walls, well beyond current building regulations whenever we do any decorating, but this is a slow process. Unfortunately we are constrained as a listed building by not being able to provide double glazing, therefore our curtains have thermal insulating liners.
We introduced showers into the properties, dual low flush toilets, etc. We defrost the fridges every week to ensure they run efficiently and clean the condensors at the end of every season to optimise their operation. The outside lights are all energy efficient lights, controlled by a daylight sensor, and most are additionally controlled on Passive Infra Red (PIR) or timeclocks. We minimise the light pollution by angling the light downwards where appropriate. We turn off all appliances, and leave nothing on standby when the properties are not occupied.

We minimise Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) by using natural materials for cleaning, and steam cleaning for thorough cleaning, instead of using bleach. We use water based paints for our walls and also for our windows and doors to minimise VOCs.

Our purchasing has always included buying recycled paper for our printers and brochures, even when they were difficult to source; recycled cartridges; recycled toilet paper, recycled bin bags. We provide liquid hand soaps to minimise the waste of soap bars only used by 1 guest. We now buy Ecover products as a recognised standard for environmental cleaning products. We buy these in bulk and fill up the small containers. We fill up the dishwasher powder with German dishwash powder (lower phospates than Ecover), but use the Tesco containers as these have child lock caps on them.
We purchase FSC approved wooden furniture, and manage to do this without additional transport from the Central Belt by combining it with work Renate does for the Carbon Trust. But where ever possible we renovate furniture, using traditional techniques of French polishing, beeswax (from our own bees) and re-upholstering.

The Council picks up our general waste and paper, and we pay to uplift the glass for recycling. We also have 2 compost bins for fruit and vegetable peelings. During refurbishment we always look at what can be re-used, and have donated many pieces of furniture to Charity. Our sofa’s were donated to the Rose’s project on the Island of Mull. We donate microwaves, toasters and kettles that don’t look up to the standards we are after, to the local children going to university.

We garden organically as much as possible, although we do have to come clean about our drive. Pulling out the weeds by hand is a 9-5 job, and the flame thrower experiments were not effective either. But no other chemicals are used. We landscape our gardens according to the historical significance, maintaining the magnificent beech trees and rhododendron gardens. The area around the pond is left for wildlife, and we have some thriving bee hives here. The wildlife in our gardens is very diverse, including some rare species such as red squirrels, pine martens and several species of bats.
The walled garden is part of our private gardens and we have a small organic fruit orchard and vegetable plot here. All our garden waste is either composted or used to provide heating for our own house.

We are actively engaged in the local community, Damon is leader of the Oban Mountain Rescue, and chairman of the school board. Renate is energy advisor on a voluntary basis for Atlantis Leisure, and also sings in the local Gaelic Choir. We also support the local Community Council whenever needed, and have advised on local windfarms and the local transport plans to encourage walking and cycling. We love the outdoor activities, and encourage our children and their friends to take part in the outdoor life, such as walking in the mountains, swimming and kayaking in the loch, cycling, orienteering, etc.

We like to encourage our guests to minimise their carbon footprint, and therefore make it easy to stay with us without a car. We will pick up anyone from the station, supply towels for free, and of course you can hire a bike locally to be ready for you when you arrive. Our local grocers will drop off your grocery order, both before you come, and whenever you do a big shop while you are with us. Public transport timetables are in the folders.

Our carbon footprint for the business is 52 tCO2. For a week’s booking this is 0.21 tCO2. If you are travelling 300 miles by car for your holiday (36 miles per gallon) then you need to add 0.1 tCO2 to this for your holiday’s carbon impact.
The energy consumption per m2 is 103 kWh per annum, which compares to a typical house of 200 kWh p.a.