Pentland Lodge House

20/09/2026

Remembering Lisa
Lisa was a huge part of life at Pentland Lodge and Caithness was a huge part of hers, so it is fitting to remember and celebrate her life here. Please see Invitation for details. For catering purposes it will be helpful to know potential attendees, so please post a reply.

14/08/2026

Remembering Lisa
Reading all the comments everyone has left on my post has been very difficult because they bring to life our own view of Lisa's character. For someone who had, before living here, moved job and place many times she had found home. She really would have been so happy to know that she was a part of the Thurso community.
Thank you all.
Liz

11/08/2026

Lisa Verschoyle
04/06/1974 – 09/08/2026
Manager of Pentland Lodge House 2010- 2026

It was chance that brought Lisa to Pentland Lodge. Having just left a job in London she was up visiting her relations (who just so happen to be my relations too) and we met on a night out. That Lisa was made for hospitality was very obvious but we did not know how Caithness would steal her heart.

She was a very large part of Pentland Lodge and cared deeply about our guests, always cheery, chatty and usually loud and laughing making many long term and returning guests friends long after they had visited.

We have all missed her since she had to move to more suitable accommodation when her illness progressed, but in Lisa’s own unique style she transformed her new home into the same world of eclectic, wonderful mementos within days and visiting was a joy.
Sadly, the move did not last long and the cancer overwhelmed her body.

Many guests, neighbours and friends have been asking after Lisa so I wanted to share some photos that to me reflect her character and love of life.

Lisa walked everywhere in Caithness, for miles and miles, mainly just with her beloved dogs but was prepared to tolerate fellow walkers, even me sometimes. She enjoyed all the weathers that a day in Caithness can throw.

She loved when we had snow, and decorating anything that didn't move for Christmas and bunting for everything else. She loved her garden, and parties and all her "tat".

We hope to celebrate her life in her inimitable style in the near future.

05/04/2026

Happy Easter.
We have decorated some of our lovely eggs for Easter.
(Perhaps we should have done them for April Fool's day as everyone thinks they are plums.)

06/02/2026

stromawildlifecruises.com

If you want to get up close to wildlife these cruises are available. They do a wildlife cruise and a Stroma tour. Their website has some brilliant photos showing some of the wildlife seen around the far North East coast. Much better than shopping.🙂

25/07/2025

Cream Tea at Castle Hill yum yum.

25/03/2025

Ranger activities for Easter. I love a good rummage and who doesn't like cake!

11/02/2025

We ask our guests to put a pin in our map to show where they have come from. Each year we start again. This is our map from 2024. Our little part of the world is visited by people from all over the world - isn't that marvellous! It can be very disappointing for guests from far flung places to find that someone else from that far flung place has already planted a pin. We've already got some pins in Australia for 2025🙂

24/12/2024

Wishing all our lovely guests, all our very reliable suppliers and any furry tail wagging friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here's to 2025

08/10/2024

Good advice from the Caithness Astronomy Group for taking aurora photos on a smart phone.

For all you budding photographers out there that are wondering what to do now the shorter days and long dark nights are returning. The Caithness International Science Festival are running a night sky photography competition this winter - it's suited to all skill levels - see their page for more details:
(www.facebook.com/CaithnessInternationalScienceFestival).

Unsure how to take photos of the night sky or if you have a suitable camera for doing so? The good news is that if you have a relatively modern smartphone or a camera with manual settings mode, then with a little know how you can capture impressive images of the night sky.

To help illustrate this check out these images showing noctilucent clouds and the northern lights taken with a Pixel 8 smartphone and the standard camera app that is installed on the phone ('Night Mode' was used for these images). You don't have to have the latest smartphone - many produced in the last 3 or 4 years have a low light photo option. It can sometimes be difficult to find the night mode or astrophotography mode in the standard camera app though, so you may have to check the manual for details on how to use it. Alternatively there are other camera apps available that provide ready manual control of imaging settings.