Group Accommodation Cottages in Scotland

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  We enjoyed our week in Barscobe House. It has a lovely prospect looking over the countryside, set in a well kept estate, and a large secluded garden with a mowed lawn. There are walks starting from the house e.g. the Holy Linn waterfall, and up into the hills. It was reunion for three generations of a family, coming together from Edinburgh, Yorkshire, London and Maine USA. It was helpful having the caretaker and housekeeper staying on the estate to help with queries. We also used a local agent, who had good local knowledge. The kitchen is very well equipped: it is difficult to know what one is going to find in a holiday let, but this property has the sense of a much loved family house, well designed for catering. There were many baking trays, cake, bun and loaf tins, a blender, food processor, hand mixer, ice maker… A real old fashioned larder, 2 fridges (one with a freezer section) and a chest freezer. Ample cutlery and crockery etc. Good recycling arrangements (glass to the nearby village, or local supermarkets). Two washing machines, a tumble dryer, an old style wooden ceiling pulley for clothes (in a separate scullery). Two dishwashers. Some of the chairs and furnishing are wabi-sabi, but we found this made it comfy, and matches the house. Beds comfortable, nice cotton bedding, plumbing good, very toasty hot press to dry/air clothes. We already knew that Castle Douglas is a foodie town, and it didn’t disappoint: three butchers (we used Grierson’s, excellent), bakers, a greengrocer, and we ended the week ordering a very good fish supper from Moore’s (with a rigid insulated box and a foil-lined bag, they stayed hot enough on the 25 minute drive). The nearby village of Balmaclellan has a friendly community shop for messages like fresh milk. There are mobile fish van shops in the region too. We were lucky with the weather, but the house has a snooker table (pool too? Not my strong suit!) and lots of indoor space should the weather break - we did consider playing “Sardines”, but actually spent a lot of time exploring local attractions for outdoorsy types (some of my family has an affinity for cold water, and swam enthusiastically in Loch Ken), with the coast not too far away. We were sad (in a way) not to need the fires, that’d be cosy indeed. The “dark sky” area meant that on clear nights we could see the Perseid “falling stars”. The wifi dropped out occasionally but this wasn’t a problem for us. The caretaker was on hand on the one occasion the router needed rebooting. We understand that infrastructure improvements are coming soon. It is an interesting old building (early 20th century) that must be challenging to keep from disrepair. The windows alone are a daunting task. The hefty security deposit is unusual in these days, but I see why it is imposed, and it was repaid within the week. The entry time of 5 pm is the latest we’ve ever been offered (due to cleaning schedule, I think), but we built that into our arrival time. We had one electric car in our party: the provision at the house is currently via a standard indoor socket using one’s own trickle feed cable: rather slow, and the surcharge seemed arbitrary (not metered, rather high) - but we did opt to use it as the fast chargers in Castle Douglas were in use/out of order: the infrastructure will presumably eventually catch up (and I don’t just mean at this property). Highly recommended.

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• Elaine - Verified booking

  So dirty on our arrival that the cleaners had to visit till late to deep clean the kitchen and return the next morning to vacuum the whole house to remove dog hairs everywhere.

  We had to eat out day one after a long journey and only had the house to ourselves at noon day 2. It was really cold when we arrived - the heating is set and can’t be changed. One thermostat was at 16*. As the daytime high was 13* it was very uncomfortable and didn’t warm up till day 3. The downstairs bathroom flooded into the bedroom and hall because of a blocked drain. To resolve this we cleaned out the blockage and applied Drain-o. Not a pleasant experience. The water is only heated twice a day, to a very high temperature, which is fine when we were only 3 in number. When all 10 arrived it was either scalding hot or cold. Then we had to wait 7 hours for it to start heating up again. We were instructed on how to fix that. We had to turn it on during the day and remember to turn it off at night. Next morning we were all woken up before 8 by a frightening noise from the boiler pipes. It sounded like it was going to explode. As we were now familiar with the boiler works, we tried to solve it but it persisted 30 minutes. Less importantly, basic maintenance hasn’t been done. Skirting board in bathroom falling off wall, numerous cracked tiles, old gaping mastic and grout, and a bathroom door that can’t close. There isn’t effective ventilation to any of the bathrooms - no fans that can be switched on or come on automatically. With 10 people, that can be unpleasant. On the other hand, the beds are very comfortable. We have been offered £50 refund. This was a long planned family reunion. We live all over the world and can’t get together regularly. It was such an important occasion marred by the defects of the accommodation.

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• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  1. The property was very well equipped and very clean. 2. The location and views were wonderful. BUT 3. 2 of the bedrooms were through rooms ie you had to go through one to get to another which was not made clear in the description of the property and was not suitable for different households. We had 6 households in the 6 rooms. Our group was not happy with this. 4. The water pressure was very low such that if more than one shower or bath was run at the same time, there was no water or it ran cold, especially upstairs. We had 7 adults all wanting showers after coming in from a walk or a cycle, and in the morning, so we had to go one at a time. It would have been totally unworkable with 12 which the house could take. I know there is a water shortage but a business like this with paying multiple users, needs to find an alternative means of water supply if as I suspect, this is a private spring supply. A borehole for example. 5. The track was actually terrible, and is just getting worse with continual use. We are used to driving up forestry roads and were prepared for it but there was one particular pothole which was dangerously deep and could not be avoided. There had been forestry work closeby so perhaps it had been made worse by machinery. But the owners need to go and look for themselves. It has reached an unacceptable state now. For such an upmarket and expensive property the access must be improved.

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• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  Wow. What an absolutely gorgeous house. It was spotlessly clean and the views are simply breathtaking. We had a wonderful week of sunshine and made the most of the house and everything the area had to offer. All the rooms are tastefully decorated - not super modern, but traditional and pleasant. What you see in the photos is absolutely what you get. My only negatives were that, one, the road leading up to the house is full of potholes and, quite frankly, not fit to have cars driving up and down it. For the money being paid to stay here, I'm sure something could be done about it. If there was anything that would put me off staying here again, it'd be this. Two, we were given the number for a house keeper but struggled to get replies from her. I sent a WhatsApp message on day 1 of our holiday and it's been read but still no response (I'm now home). When we arrived at the property, we struggled to get into the key safe to retrieve the keys. We tried contacting the house keeper but, in the end, had to phone Rural Retreats and see if they could help us. That said though, we all loved our stay here, and would thoroughly recommend the house and Rural Retreats to anyone wanting a superb base near Oban.

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• Peter - Verified booking

  The house was ideal for our family holiday with ourselves (grandparents) and three families (our children and their children), so 8 adults and six children in all.

  The location is good for the whole of NE Scotland, although the main road outside the property is used by fast traffic so has to be approached with care. There is plenty of space for sleeping, playing, working, chilling out and most importantly for simultaneous food preparation for fussy kids using the multiple sinks, fridges, dishwashers etc. The house was clean and well presented when we arrived. The grounds are lovely with space for games, barbequing, eating and exploring. The caretaker John was helpful and attentive. He was very friendly. There were some minor negatives we have already informed John about: The matresses are badly worn and need replacement. The timeswitch on the tumble dryer is broken - it didn't switch off. And small children have to be watched on the upper landings as the bannister rails are widely spaced. But thank you - we had a great holiday. Everyone loved it.

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