Biallid House (Inverness)

“Beautiful mountainous views are visible from every room at Biallid House, which lies in Britain’s largest National Park [Cairngorm]. This large holiday cottage has seven bedrooms and comfortably sleeps up to 15.” Beautiful views, a national park, ‘the ideal base for a number of country pursuits and outdoor adventures’. Biallid seems to have it all, but like so many hotels in Scotland it is in the (long) queue to flog the nation’s wildlife to shooting tourists. Despite a list of very viable and environment-, climate-, and wildlife-friendly alternatives on offer, under ‘Activities‘ guests are assured that “The Highlands of Scotland are renowned for offering unrivalled hunting and shooting opportunities.” Biallid hopefully suggests that hunting here will be “creating memories that will last a lifetime.” Nah, this is just one of literally hundreds of businesses selling the same opportunities to kill wildlife as all the others. The memories will be fleeting, the ‘guests’ will shuffle around to the next venue, and the wildlife of course will soon be forgotten…