Lost Shore: Where surfers will be staying, and what they'll be eating, at Scotland's new wave pool

Clockwise from top left: 'Wave' self-catering accommodation at Lost Shore; food by Five March of Glasgow; 'Wave' interior; The Wave at Lost Shore | Lost Shore

This autumn Scotland will get its first artificial surfing wave, when the new Lost Shore resort opens in a former quarry at Ratho, just outside Edinburgh. With a price tag of £55 million, it will be the most expensive sports infrastructure project to be completed in the country for more than a decade. It’s also a development consisting of many different but complementary elements, so we’re exploring these in a four-part series. The first two instalments, both available to read on scotsman.com, dealt with the mechanics of the wave pool and with the ways in which the new development will focus on the health benefits of surfing. This week’s third instalment looks at the accommodation options that will be available and, perhaps even more importantly, what kind of catering options will be on offer for post-surf refuelling.

Towards the end of last year, Lost Shore announced that it had appointed Andy Roger as its CEO. Most recently, Roger had been resort director at the five-star Cameron House on Loch Lomond, and before that he had worked at One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow, various Malmaison hotels and Hotel du Vin Tunbridge Wells. Fair to say, then, that a professional with more experience of the hospitality sector in Scotland would have been tricky to find.

In terms of food and drink, Roger’s concept for Lost Shore is to offer a constantly changing selection of dining options in its cafe, restaurant and food market, Canteen, designed and curated by Edinburgh agency Rogue Village.

“Rogue Village will source the independent kitchens that will come in and work with us,” he explains. “Two of the kitchens will change every three months and one of the kitchens will change every 12 months. That means that, if you come to visit Lost Shore in the fourth quarter of this year, you’ll have three different food offerings to choose from, but if you come back in January only one of those will still be there.”

Broadly-speaking, Roger predicts that there will be three main groups of people looking for food at the resort when it opens: “People who are surfing and who need something to eat afterwards; people who have come for the overall resort experience; and people who have said ‘Oh, that restaurant’s there, we must go out and try it.’”

The first three food offerings have been chosen accordingly, with everything from quick, filling food for hungry surfers to more high-end offerings to keep more adventurous foodies happy.

Of the first two kitchens coming in on three-month rotations, one is Five March from the West End of Glasgow, which Roger describes as “a small-plate concept with a real focus on Scottish ingredients”. The second – also from Glasgow – is Rafa’s, specialising in tacos and burritos.

Rafa's Diner | Contributed

“We’ve also signed a 12-month agreement with [pizza chain] Civerinos,” says Roger. “They are predominantly in Edinburgh, so they will be well known to a lot of the Edinburgh market.

“The fourth pod within the food and beverage space is the bar,” he continues, “and we’ll run that ourselves. We’ve appointed our own food and beverage manager, who has joined us from Panda & Sons [on Edinburgh’s Queen Street], which made the World’s 50 Best Bars list last year. We’re also working with Pilot brewery, and they are currently brewing a Lost Shore lager.”

When the resort is complete there will be a total of 53 accommodation units on site, with a combined capacity of around 250, and again Roger has divided their expected customers into three main groups: “People who have come to surf and need somewhere to stay; people who are wanting to come and surf and eat and do a bit of everything; and then people who are perhaps flying off from the airport or going into Edinburgh the next day, but want to stay somewhere out of town.”

Interior view of one of the lodges at Lost Shore | Lost Shore

In keeping with this, there is a range of self-catering options. On the hilltop above the wave pool there will be 31 three and four-bedroom lodges, each with a kitchen, lounge area and dining area. Then, down by the waterside, there will be three more types of accommodation, all designed by a company called Armadilla based just south of Edinburgh. The smallest will be the Pods, intended for one or two people. Then there will be two different kinds of accommodation designed to sleep four – Curves and Waves.

'Wave' self-catering accommodation at Lost Shore, designed by Armadilla | Lost Shore

The prototypes and artist’s impressions certainly look impressive, but a key test will be how the accommodation links up with the rest of the resort. After all, while you want to offer guests a good view of the waves, you also want people to be able to go surfing without feeling as if they’re being watched by hundreds of pairs of eyes. How does Lost Shore square that circle?

“If you’re sitting in one of the lodges [on the hilltop],” says Roger, “if you’re in the front row, you’ll just about be able to see the bottom of the Cove, but you’re certainly not seeing the whites of the eyes of the surfers. Then, with the waterfront accommodation, the closest unit is maybe a bit closer than 100 yards, but most of the surfing happens further back into the Cove. There’s a balance of having proximity but not feeling like you’re in a fish bowl, and I think that balance has been really well masterplanned on the site.”

For more information, visit www.lostshore.com

To find out more about the mechanics of the wave pool at Lost Shore, click here

To find out how Scotland’s new surf resort was built using the latest health science research, click here