Last weekend was a pretty hectic time at The Ptarmigan, CairnGorm Mountain's prestigious award-winning restaurant at the top of the funicular, for it not only saw the start of this season's Sunset Dining programme on Saturday but also hosted a fund-raising Gala Dinner - The Monarch Dinner - on the Friday evening. And what a winner that was with 90 guests being entertained by Michael Chaplin, the joint creator and script writer for the highly successful production by BBC Scotland and Ecosse Films of "Monarch of the Glen".
Several cast members, and a large part of the production team, from Monarch turned up at the event that was in aid of Maggie's Highlands Centre, building work on which is due to start this Autumn in the grounds of the Raigmore Hospital at Inverness. Having heard Ann Melia, the principal fund-raiser for the new Highlands Centre. tell how the charity had managed to amass over £800,000 in only 18 months for a projected target of £1million, the audience at The Ptarmigan, encouraged by the ready wit and humour of actor-turned-auctioneer Hamish Clark, seemed to be trying .to reduce the balance single-handedly.
In fact, the evening, now firmly established as CairnGorm Mountain's annual charity gala night, raised an incredible £10,000 for Maggie's Highlands Centre - a quite outstanding achievement considering that there were only 92 guests present in all. Fundraiser Anne Melia returned to Inverness in the early hours of Saturday morning clearly delighted.
Said Ian Whitaker, CairnGorm Mountain's Commercial Director: "This was a terrific effort by staff, and many other people, in making it all happen. The evening was a huge success and, from our perspective, showed once again that The Ptarmigan continues to offer the highest quality of food and service."
Unfortunately, visibility at the top was not clear, thanks to some low cloud, and people didn’t actually see a summer sunset last Friday. However, no one complained because they realised that the Summer Sunset dining season did not really start until Saturday evening!
This weekend, Summer Sunset dining continues on Friday and Saturday evenings while Thursday night is Highland Buffet and Ceilidh Night at CairnGorm.
Ends
Further information from Bill Nolan (Tel 07885 071804).
Pics available from Andrew Gooday (Tel: 01479 861261)
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