This year has seen major investment in new facilities and services at The Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha. The Fraser Family who own the business have built a new cottage providing further B&B accommodation and opened St Mocha Coffee Shop and Ice Cream Parlour. Parklife Magazine visited to find out more from Stuart and David Fraser, who between them have masterminded the design and creation of these facilities. Stuart, you opened Aber Cottage and St Mocha at Easter, what has been the reaction so far? Incredible, with positive feedback not just about the environment that we have created, but the food and drink that we sell. For St Mocha we use an amazing blend of coffee as well as producing on site both of our
new ice cream brands, Loch Lomond Luxury and Bal-Moo-Ha. The end result is something very special for our St Mocha customers. David, the new building is stunning, built like the Oak Tree with locally quarried stone. Is this look important to you? Yes, we’ve also just added it to the exterior of another cottage Loch Sloy and although it’s certainly not the cheapest option we are mindful that we are in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, right in the heart of the National Park and want to make our properties blend into the environment.
Stuart, I notice new logos for the Oak Tree, St Mocha and Village Shop etc. what prompted that? The business has moved on a lot in the last few years and we recently commissioned an updated design that has evolved our identity. We’re thrilled with the end result and it’s looking good not just on the exterior signs but also on our brand new website, menus etc.
Stuart and David Fraser with nephew Archie
So David, what’s next for the family?
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The next project is a purpose built loch side microbrewery to house our very own Balmaha Brewing Co. Oak Tree Inn customers kept asking what the local beer was and there wasn’t one! So we started brewing our own. We haven’t