Cottages That Sleep 12 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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• Terry-anne - Verified booking

  Argyle House is a gem of a place!

  Deceptive from the outside as its massive on the inside! It sits right on the see front & has amazing veiws across to the mainland. We were a party of 20, 12 adults & 8 children (ages from 5 - 17) celebrating a 50th birthday & there was enough room for everyone to have their own space, the teenagers had their own rooms which they loved as they could chill out whenever they wanted. There are 2 lovely big sitting rooms, the kids took ownership of one while the male adults chilled in the other watching football! The real hub of the house though was the massive dining room (the only room big enough to hold all of us at once) and the kitchen. The dining room overlooks the harbour & out to the mainland, it is a fabulous view! The kitchen has everything you could possibly need & there's a massive range cooker more than capable of catering for the 20 of us. Most rooms are ensuite which was a real bonus. Fantastic big garden for the kids & dogs to runaround in complemented by a hot tub sited in a very tasteful gazebo to protect you from the elements although we were very lucky as the sun shone all weekend. The owner was very welcoming, contacting us on day one, to check in with us to make sure we were happy with everything & again after check out which is a lovely touch. The neighbours and the people on the island of Bute were so friendly too, which really helped us all to feel welcome & part of the community for the short time we were there! All in all a lovely house in a lovely location, I would definitely recommend it for a large group.

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• Anon. - Verified booking

  Stunning

  The house is stunning, very impressive and well maintained as is the grounds around the house. Beautiful location with spectacular views and walks. The house has 7 bedrooms all en-suite and tastefully decorated. The beds were so comfortable and additional camp beds added for kids if required and plenty space to do so. Everything was really nice and well looked after. The towels are lovely with nice products in the bathrooms. Graham cooked dinner on the Saturday night and it was exceptionally good. The service and attention to detail was perfect. The girls that worked with him were lovely and so efficient. He is an excellent chef, well worth spoiling yourself and have dinner made for you. I honestly cannot rate this experience highly enough. We didn't want to go home! The owners, Graham and Elizabeth are fantastic hosts who should be so proud of what they have achieved.

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• Sandra - Verified booking

  The perfect place for all of us

  You do not have enough stars to rate our experience at Ross-shire Hall. The home is beautiful. The ambience is so peaceful and calm. This home is completely and fully equipped with any and everything you can possibly want, including three baskets of toys for our toddler. We were a four generation family. This was the perfect place for all of us. All three fireplaces are relaid every day for beautiful fires in the evening. The grounds are lush and beautiful. Graham prepared dinners for us every evening, and provided soups and sandwiches for lunches. The food was unforgettable. If you want to experience how royalty lives, please visit. Elizabeth and Graham will take care of everything and make you feel like kings and queens. I cannot say enough. This is by far the most memorable experience any of us have ever had at a BNB.

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• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  Large well equipped holiday home. On the whole, it was a good. It had everything we needed and was in a pretty location. 👍🏻 A few minor points - most of the light bulbs in one bedroom were either missing or blown, hand towel(s) missing from downstairs bathroom, and it could have been cleaner (a lot of cobwebs etc particularly on window sills, windows dirty and couldn’t be opened, debris from previous guests in wardrobes, one of the pillows cases in one bedroom had dirt and spots of blood (!) on it, and the blanket on the other ground floor bed was covered in dog hair). It just needs a bit of TLC I think. The top two floors were generally better. The king size bedrooms with en-suite were lovely large rooms.

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