THE PEOPLE OF HOME AT FIRST:

the barbers of balquhidder
        Popular Home At First hosts Pat and Neil Barber have come home to Scotland after a lifetime as corporate gypsies. Along the way, the Barbers became parents thrice, once in the Far East and twice in the Middle East.
        If the days of European colonialism are at least 40 years gone, the sun has indeed not set on corporate empires. The Barbers were a modern sort of station traders of a modern kind of Dutch East India Company, Shell Oil. Their duties led them to equatorial outposts both forgotten and exotic across the Eastern Hemisphere. They couldn't have been further from their Scottish roots were they living on Mars.

PAT & NEIL BARBER BACK HOME AGAIN IN THE HIGHLANDS

        Raising children in Aden, Kenya, Nigeria and Brunei is not the same as in Scotland. Aside from the rare monster in the loch, Scottish dangers are few. In Scotland, kids do not swim with sharks (as did son Alistair at 5 years old) or crocodiles nor become surrounded by lions (as happened to Pat and the children when their Land Rover broke down while crossing the savanna). Along the Equator, snow is but a rumor. Norman castles are the stuff of legend only. Rain and mists and golf are different in Scotland than in the rain forest. Sunshine, mountains and moors are vastly different in the Trossachs than they are in the tropics. The Barbers' children knew they were Scottish, but they didn't know Scotland.

          While Neil was on the payroll in Shell's accounting division, Pat was no less involved in the lifestyle of corporate colonialism. As wife of a Shell executive, Pat was expected to be an active participant in the important social culture which came with Neil's job. The importance of this role is magnified at a foreign posting, where the success of the corporate mission is tied significantly to social interactions with the locals. So, while Neil was taking care of business, Pat was taking care of business, too. Both roles required intelligence, sophistication, grace, and finesse. Pat and Neil, both well educated and energetic, were perfectly suited to the roles.

          Pat and Neil had grown up in Scotland. And, although they lived far from home for much of their adult lives, dreams of Scotland stayed with them. Over time, they obtained three properties in the beautiful central Scottish Highlands region called the Trossachs, best known as the home of Scottish brigand/hero, Rob Roy MacGregor. One, a former thatched croft called Earnbank on the north shore of Loch Earn, had been the Barber family summer cottage. Two other properties, Bruach and Keeper's Cottage, a former tavern dating from at least Rob Roy's time (early 18th century), occupy a prominent place in Balquhidder village between the Hall and the Kirk (the very church were Rob Roy is buried).

          In the mid-1980's, while Pat and Neil were between foreign postings with Shell and living near London, Pat rented out Keepers Cottage to holiday makers when the family was not there, which is to say most of the time. In 1984, the British Untour, an American travel program, was expanding into Scotland and "discovered" the Barber family cottage. British Untour guests began "discovering" the Trossachs as an ideal base for touring Scotland by using the Barbers' cottage and several others in the area.

          The program grew rapidly, so much so that it needed a British coordinator to handle bookings, accounting, landlord liaison, and hotel matters in London, Wales and Scotland. Neil nominated Pat as a candidate for the job. At her interview Pat impressed everyone with her skills, personality and poise. In 1988 Pat contracted to be the program's UK representative.

          In 1990, with the children now grown and living elsewhere, Neil elected to take early retirement from Shell Oil, and the couple sold their London home and moved north to Keeper's Cottage in Balquhidder. With this move the center of gravity of the British Untour program shifted to central Scotland. More program features were added, making central Scotland the primary destination of the British Untour. Meetings at the Glasgow Airport, full orientation, group outings and dinners became program features at this time. Pat personally handled everything in addition to hosting guests at her three rental properties, being liaison with all UK landlords, and doing all the bookkeeping. Neil Barber was often informally drafted to help with larger groups, especially at the biweekly dinners in Lochearnhead. Pat and Neil loved to introduce their beloved Trossachs to their North American guests, and enthusiastically shared their considerable knowledge of the region's fishing, golf, restaurants, hill-walks, museums, castles and scenic drives.

          Pat and Neil holidayed in Ireland, researching potential program locations for a proposed Irish Untour. The Barbers "discovered" Tipperary in 1990. By chance they stayed at the Puckane cottage of Billy and Bridie Shanahan. Here was not only a quality accommodation for the program but a couple who were eventually to fill the roles of the Barbers in Ireland.

          Nineteen-ninety-one saw the transfer of all English-speaking Untour destinations into Home At First. The decade of the nineties has brought significant growth to all Home at First programs and continued change to the Barber family. Growth throughout the UK and Ireland has meant not only increased numbers to existing destinations, but also the addition of several new destinations. Pat and Neil Barber have been involved at every level, from handling the larger operation in the Trossachs to researching new destinations: the Cotswolds, Devonshire, Yorkshire, Shropshire, the Lake District, the Scottish Borders, the Far North of Scotland, and Ireland's County Cork and Counties Sligo & Donegal, and the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland.

          The Barber children, having grown up in the vagabond lifestyle of a Shell corporate family, have now scattered throughout the English-speaking world. Elder son Alistair teaches deep sea diving in the Caribbean. Daughter Kirsty married her girlhood sweetheart, Glyn Legge, and emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, where they have three children. Younger son Ross spent time away from home in Australia and South Africa before returning to Scotland to study photography. He and wife Teresa live near Edinburgh and have a daughter and a son.

        Pat and Neil Barber raise big, sweet raspberries and other gourmet hothouse fruits and vegetables. They helped plan and build the new village hall across the burn from Keeper's Cottage in Balquhidder. They remain active in managing the allocation of the use of the Hall for community events of all kinds: concerts, Highland dancing, strawberry teas, rummage sales, and the regular biweekly orientation meetings for Home at First's Central Highlands guests.

          To keep potential inactivity at bay, the Barbers also found time to help start an award-winning monthly local paper, The Villager, which now, after several years of success, must get along without the Barbers, whose commitments are once again changing.

          For much of their adult lives the Barbers traveled the Third World, carrying the corporate culture with them like missionaries of capitalism. They bore and raised three healthy, talented children for whom life in foreign cultures is the norm, but who prize their heritage as Scots. After Shell, Pat and Neil changed their own lives, returning to their native Scotland. They brought their vision and energy with them, and they have helped put their beloved Trossachs into the consciousness of travelers, making thousands of friends along the way.

          Pat and Neil continue to provide one apartment in their home at Keeper's Cottage for use of Home at First guests. Their many talents and their energy will continue to inspire and influence the thousands of guests they have served and the many thousands yet to come.

To learn more about Keeper's Cottage and Balquhidder, visit: SCOTLAND'S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS