There were two recent bad reviews (amongst loads of good ones) when I looked the other day. Both were large family groups, and the standard of spelling, punctuation and grammar informed me to ignore both.
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I found the Tushielaw Inn generally good and stayed there three times with the former innkeepers. The good thing about the place it is exactly where you want it to be for the summits in that area. On my last visit though (Aug 2020) I got food poisoning. I couldnāt be sure of course, but I put it down to a piece of Lorne sausage that I had on the Thursday morning cooked breakfast. That was the only extra item I had on the Thursday that I didnāt have on the Wednesday. By 1.30pm on the Thursday on the summit of Mendick Hill GM/SS-195, I started with explosive diarrhoea and was sick later that afternoon on reaching the Inn. (Too much information?). It was so bad I had to abandon an activation of Wether Hill GM/SS-166 in the afternoon and GM/SS-029 Broad Law on the Friday morning as I still felt ill. So we headed back homeā¦
You meet some interesting guests at the Tushielaw Inn as it is the route many choose when travelling Lands End - John oāGroats or other long distance routes - cyclists, walkers, bikers and classic car types.
Youāll have a great time, its a good base and I would happily stay there again if there were uniques within range but which unforunately, I have run out of them in that area.
73 Phil G4OBK
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Hi JImmy,
The meanest guesthouse keeper I ever met was in Kirkby Stephen when five of us were doing Wainwrights Coast to Coast LD walk. The landlady offered to fill our flasks with tea after breakfast, which was a friendly and most generous gesture. The snag was when we went to the kitchen to collect them they all had a handwritten label on them stating Ā£1!
I hope you get the facilities you have come to expect OM.
73 Phil
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Hi Phil,
I believe that Tushielaw Inn should be a good place to stay at giving that most reviews there are are good. Hopefully the current owners will be as hospitable as the previous owners were.
I did recently read your activation reports from the last time you stayed at Tushielaw Inn in August 2020 when you ended up getting poorly and was wondering if this was down to food poisoning at Tushielaw Inn. Maybe it might actually be good that Tushielaw Inn has since changed hands if it was the case that you being poorly was down to food poisoning from there.
Jimmy M0HGY
Not as bad as this as that really recent bad review on their Facebook where the person who posted the bad review got into a big argument with Tushielaw Inn following their response to the bad review. What an idiot.
Iām sure it will be good, but I think will be need to be there by early evening each day in time to get a shower and then food and I believe the only main disadvantage is that WIFI will be slow with it being rural.
Jimmy M0HGY
Hi Jimmy,
I didnāt have any issues when I used it, but of course the system may have changed with the new owners. I had no phone signal (O2), so I used Whatsapp over the internet connection to speak to my XYL and that proved to be worthy of a few Brownie points. 
Rab and Gail were great characters. Meeting Rab the first time was an experience and I can see that he may have upset a few people, but Paul G4MD and I got on great with both him and Gail. Gail accommodated our desire for an early breakfast and it really did set us up for the day. Gail even made porridge to Paulās exacting standards. I baulked at porridge, preferring instead to get some calories on board with the full Scottish breakfast, haggis included. Gail also prepared packed lunches for us which had a change from existing on cereal bars. As has been said, there is no real ale on tap, but Rab stocked Fursty Ferret (Badger Brewery) in bottles which is one of my favourite ales. A couple of those and Gailās āspecialā food offering made for an enjoyable evening. We sampled both the āposhā rooms and the ābargain basementā rooms. Both were acceptable and very reasonable cost.
Paul and I were planning to go back there between Christmas and New Year 2020, but a certain virus and other issues stopped that. The itinerary is still on the computer, so maybe a return will still be on the cards.
I hope you enjoy your stay. We will expect a report of course.
73, Gerald
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Hi Gerald,
It sounds to me that Rab and Gail are great people and weāre very accommodating also. However as mentioned above, this pub changed hands since autumn so will be interesting to see if the current owners are as accommodating to what Rab and Gail were. With regards to breakfast, I believe that the cooked breakfast is no longer included, but available at a cost and only the continental breakfast is now included, I may very well at least one morning the the extra to have a proper cooked Scottish breakfast especially if this still contains haggis. Regarding the beer, hand pulled real ale would have been preferred, but hopefully theyāll either have craft beer or bottles of real ale, but if not I am sure the lager will be good. I am pleased that hear that the WIFI was OK when you and Paul G4MD stayed there. Either during the trip or after we get home we will report on what Tushielaw Inn is like under the current owners along with activation reports also. We will be focusing on the SOTA summits close to Tushielaw Inn as they all uniques to us.
Jimmy M0HGY
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It was a rather ungracious hotelier that inspired John Cleese to devise the Fawlty Towers series, so we should be grateful that a steady stream of such people is being provided. When you are charged a quid for a thermos of hot water, who knows, that could inspire a line like āsorry, chef has already opened the tinā.
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I became hooked to the comedy show Fawlty Towers when I was a young child. I remember one Saturday evening when I was a child when my mum was a work and I was in the living room with my dad Tom M1EYP who was watching Fawlty Towers at the time which I ended up finding very funny and ended up watching all episode of this classic comedy show multiple times since.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Hi Jimmy,
What comes as a surprise to many is that there were only 13 episodes made. Gems. They are replayed on Australian tv fairly regularly still.
Must have generated a lot of trailing royalties, which I donāt mind a bit.
Have a good trip.
Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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I was fond of Fawly Towers, but my all time favourite was Last of the Summer Wine. I used to recover after laughing through a show and saying to my folks āThatās the way I want to grow oldā.
And lo and beholdā¦
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Pretty sure itās 12.
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Hi Tom,
as I posted that comment, I had a moment of doubt. Was it 12 or 13? But I knew someone would know the correct figure.
73 Andrew
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I very much look forward to hearing how you find the stay Jimmy. Paul and I have unfinished business there and would like to return one day. I doubt the experience will be anything like ours when we arrived the first time and Rab greeted us with a stern rebuke, āwhat kept you, where have you been?ā It took a second or two to realise we were having our legs pulled as we hadnāt specified an arrival time. 
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Apparently these new owners do provide complimentary whiskey for the residents that are staying there, the only problem is that I donāt drink whiskey at all, so either Iāll try mine or give it to my dad Tom M1EYP.
With regards to you returning there one day, I thought the SOTA summits that you and Paul G4MD had left to do south of Glasgow and Edinburgh are in South West Scotland and no where near Tushielaw Inn. I assume if you and Paul G4MD plan to stay at Tushielaw Inn again, this will be to activate the SOTA summits near there under your former class B callsigns. How are your plans coming along by the way for you and Paul G4MD to activate your remaining GM/SS SOTA summits south of Glasgow and Edinburgh?
Jimmy M0HGY
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Paul still has a few SOTA summits to activate in the area around Tushielaw. We prepared an itinerary where I would drop Paul off at the start of his ascent and then Iād go off and activate a nearby HEMA summit - repeat a few times. The idea was to get Paul finished off in that area and to have another enjoyable post-Christmas stay at the Tushielaw.
i seem to recall that there was complimentary Whisky in the rooms, but we decided not to embibe in deference to climbing hills the next day, preferring to stick with a couple of ales.
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FYI
Here is a picture of G4MDās got and wanted activation is the Southern Uplands, based on the SOTA database.
Red = Wanted.
I currently have 22 Southern Uplands left to activate.
My current map looks like this.
73 de
Andrew G4VFL
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This is actually inspirational, that you can get through such a volume of summits and get them activated. I know Iāve done āquite a lotā of SOTAs, but the GM regions always look to have so much summits that one would never get through them. Now that a number of people have completed, or nearly completed GM/SS or the Southern Uplands section, it inspires me to raise my own aspirations.
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This sounds good Gerald. We will let you know if Tushielaw Inn is still a recommended to stay at once we have stayed there which hopefully it will be so that you and Paul G4MD can have an enjoyable post-Christmas stay there.
Jimmy M0HGY
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Hi Andrew,
I noticed earlier this week that you were activating SOTA summits near Tushielaw Inn which we will probably activate when we are in the area. Just wondering if you were staying at Tushielaw Inn and if you have any recommended routes for the SOTA summits that you recently activated in that area?
Jimmy M0HGY