25-05-2025
Cafe's 'world-famous' shark toilet becomes Stirlingshire's latest tourist attraction
A 'world-famous shark toilet' at a cafe near Balquhidder is drawing in tourists and famous faces from around the globe.
Tim Brumpton, 47, and Andrea Saunders, 54, took over The Golden Larches on the A84 between Strathyre and Lochearnead two years ago.
Since creating the quirky loo, they have welcomed visitors from Australia, New Zealand, America, Korea and continental Europe.
It has attracted Scottish rugby star John Jeffrey who was nicknamed 'The Great White Shark' and Australian mountain-biking professional Josh Carlson.
A bride and groom and a centenarian have also snapped pictures in the shark toilet.
The B&B owners say the great white gimmick has been great for business.
Tim said: 'We've had a lot of people come in saying they're driven past for many, many years and never been in.
'But they're coming in now to see the shark toilet.'
Andrea added: 'There's always going to be negativity but it's a bit of fun.
'The majority of people love it. We get a lot of good feedback.'
Tim says it was a 'happy accident' that the shark toilet was created.
They knew tourists from across the globe would drive past their business and wanted something unique that people would visit.
The landscaper explained: 'I was trying to think of something different to everybody else and the one thing everybody has in common is we need to use the toilet.
'The idea was that if we had a crazy toilet, everybody would be drawn in and attracted to it.
'That's how it started. There was no plan, no theme, just an idea to make a crazy toilet.'
One day, while preparing to move to Scotland, Tim was watching an antiques programme on TV as it was near their home in the English Midlands.
He spied a shark head in the background and had what he described as a 'lightbulb moment'.
The next day, he went to the shop and bought it.
However, knowing Andrea wouldn't like it, he kept it in the passenger seat of his work van for six weeks.
He said: 'I was driving around in a silver work van with a big shark head in the windscreen.
'All my friends knew about it, all my customers knew about it, but Andrea knew nothing about it.'
When Tim finally showed Andrea the shark head, she thought it was a bad idea.
'I thought 'who wants to see a shark?' I couldn't visualise it,' laughed Andrea.
Tim added: 'In Andrea's defence, everybody else thought I was crazy.
'Everybody said what a silly idea it was, it's not going to work, you're just crazy.'
However, the pair soon proved everyone wrong.
Tim installed the shark head and they hired Barry the Cat, an artist from Doune, to decorate the walls with an underwater theme.
While originally only half of the room was shark-themed so that users could avoid it should they wish, the entire toilet now has a variety of artwork and posters.
Each year, they add more to the toilet.
This has ranged from a shark in a kilt to a wobbegong model.
In the future, Andrea and Tim hope to start selling shark souvenirs and attract more famous faces to their 'world-famous shark toilet'.
