Cork to the Highlands
Working in Scottish hospitality as an Irish citizen: the Common Travel Area, the Scottish personal licence, food safety on both sides of the water, live-in accommodation, and learning Gaelic as an Irish speaker. First-hand, with the sources at the foot of every piece.
9 essays-
People & Craft · · 5 min read
Live-in accommodation in Highland hospitality: the room that comes with the job
£11.10 a day. That's the most a room with the job can count towards your minimum wage. What else to know before a live-in job in the Highlands.
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Heritage & Place · · 3 min read
The story goes like this: a Cork fireside and the stag bells
A coal fire in Cork, Barry's tea, RTÉ on low, and my grandfather telling the same story a hundred and one times. Never once a different story.
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Cork to the Highlands · · 4 min read
Sitting the SCPLH from Ireland, and the Scottish personal licence
The Scottish personal licence lasts ten years, costs £50, and the exam is forty questions. I'm booking it from a kitchen table in Cork. Here's what the Act says.
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Cork to the Highlands · · 5 min read
An Irish citizen's first week in Scottish hospitality: the Common Travel Area, in practice
I can start work in a Highland kitchen the morning I land. No visa, no sponsor, no English test. Here's the first week, in practice, with the sources.
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People & Craft · · 3 min read
Learning my Scotch: a classroom autumn
On Tuesday I told you I was still learning my Scotch and happy to be taught. On Monday morning, the lessons start.
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Heritage & Place · · 3 min read
Why the Highlands: a letter before the move
Somewhere in those months a question I'd been carrying answered itself. I want the hills to be the view, not the holiday.
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Heritage & Place · · 3 min read
The drinks, the people and the places
The best drinks I've made began in a tea shop in the English Market in Cork. Part two of looking back before Scotland: the drinks, the people and the places.
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People & Craft · · 2 min read
WSET Level 2 Wines: the studying starts
My WSET Level 2 Award in Wines materials arrived today, so the studying starts now. What the course covers, and why the point is helping a guest choose.
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Heritage & Place · · 2 min read
Where it all started: a Honda, a Christmas pudding and Fota Island
At fifteen I bought a Honda 125 with money from a few hours' work a week. Then came the first waiter job, a Christmas pudding, and Fota Island at eighteen.
