A NEW tourism chapter in Peeblesshire has started as the first guests arrive at a multi-million pound luxury holiday lodge development in Glentress Forest.

The £18m 56-cabin complex opened on Friday (November 1).

Forest Holidays, the company behind the project, said it had created and filled 50 jobs since recruitment started in August.

Scottish business minister Richard Lochhead was given a guided tour – from the reception café and bar at the Buzzards Nest car park – by Evan Jones, the facilities live-in general manager, on Tuesday.

Mr Jones, 26, who has worked for Forest Holidays for nine years, said: “The Glentress lodges are already fully booked for November and as soon as guests experience them we expect to get further bookings.”

Serving coffees to special guests was Roxanne Linton, 33, who was formerly food and beverage supervisor at Macdonald Cardrona.

Ms Linton said: “I love the vibe and environment that Forest Holidays has created and being an outdoorsy family we always brought my son to bike ride in Glentress.”

The head of Forest Holiday’s Scottish operation, cluster general manager Laurent Agostinelli, said: “We are fully recruited – management, teams, housekeeping and in the café.

“We did not expect it to be so quick but it has been phenomenal.

“Housekeeping is part-time but with contracted hours, as we don’t do zero hours contracts and we are not seasonal, we are open all-year round.

“We want the team members to stay with us as long as they wish.

“We have three team members living on location for on-call and there is ample parking for other team members.

“Most of the housekeepers don’t drive but we shuttle them up and down.”

Andrew Brook, Forest Holidays’ director of sustainable growth, praised the work that Forestry and Land Scotland had done on site.

Mr Brook, a former Royal Engineers officer, said: “Quite a few of the folk in my team are from an ex-forces background because working in this environment is not like a normal place.

“We are working sensitively with the woodland.

“The amount of work that Forestry and Land Scotland has done relative to the masterplan is really impressive.

“All the new trails and skills area and parking arrangements are reinforcing the work we are doing here on accommodation.

“This is our newest development and we are always innovating in terms of the technologies we use and the terrains.

“We are on piled foundation systems and the way we have worked with the topography here would not have been possible 10 or five years ago when you needed much flatter sites.

“We have the benefit of being in a mature woodland and with stunning views.

“This site is quite unique compared to our existing 13 locations that have views or forest, here we have both.”