Dog Friendly Bed And Breakfasts 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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• Ken - Verified booking

  We booked Riechip around 4 months ago after our original booking for another property was cancelled.

  We realised when we booked Riechip that it was a Hunting Lodge and not luxurious accommodation with many facilities, which was reflected in the price so our expectations were not high. In the end Riechip slightly exceeded expectations. We had 14 adults and 2 infants so both the dining room and the living room were more than big enough for our gatherings. With 3 showers and 3 WCs there was never any conflict. Some of the rooms had hand basins. The kitchen was big enough to allow cooking for 14 and there were more than sufficient plates and glasses etc. Having 2 fridges, 2 freezers and 2 dishwashers was definitely a bonus. The view from the lounge was spectacular. Overall Riechip was comfortable but some of the decor, furniture and facilities were getting a little tired. If like us you do not have high expectations you can have a great holiday here, particularly if you have a large party, with the ability to sit out front and admire the view or to travel further up the hill to the isolated loch on the moor. In summary we had a great holiday and if looking for a large property competitively priced, to get away from it all, in future we would certainly consider Riechip.

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• Ian - Verified booking

  The house is in a lovely location, and is full of Victorian (?

  ) period charm. It is very comfortable despite its age, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The owner, Hamish, is very helpful and attentive to guests' enjoyment - we appreciated this very much. We did note however that the house does need some maintenance and upgrade - some of the plug sockets (bunk bed room for example) are not properly secured into the wall, constituting a safety issue, and the single shower is not really sufficient for a large party of guests. Having come to the property last year (£2584), this year (£3668), we are having significant reservations about returning next year (£4176) - the approaching 100% price increase within the span of 2 years is way ahead of inflation, and is certainly not being justified by property maintenance and upgrade. Perhaps Sykes' commission is driving these increases? If that is the case, Sykes, please note the drive for increased profits has the potential to alienate customers (!) - remember, we are now very much post-Covid, and perhaps the rush for holidays in Scotland that we saw in '21, '22 is diminishing.

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• Clair - Verified booking

  To start with the road down to lodge was very very bad masive holes everywhere when in side it wasn't very clean bedrooms on top floor had blue bottles flys and even under the mattresses on bed base had dead flys.

  The kitchen was the only room for gatherings as drawing room was cold and absolutely smelt of smoke from the log burner, this was even before we lit it,when we did light it smoke would would enter the room therefore not being able to use as several of our guests are severe asthmatics,heating was very hard to work,after a call to the caretaker will finally got it on but radiators wasn't very hot, the main bedroom had no heating at all and was very cold.We had a power cut Christmas eve and yes I know these things happen but we had no candles or torches in the house therefore had to go out and buy some.We were looking for a hoover after no luck we contacted the caretaker again and was told it broke and they would get one out to us by the middle of the week only a small tv in kitchen area and no dvds for the children to watch,furniture was old and ripped and needs replacing ,wouldn't say it wasn't worth how much it cost. wouldn't recommend this property . Very unsatisfied with this property.

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• Su - Verified booking

  We had a great week as a large family group (15 of us) celebrating a birthday and exploring the local area and the road to the isles.

  The location is superb and we made the most of the loch and local walks. The house has great character and is extremely well-equipped, especially the kitchen, which was very helpful, as we did a fair bit of cooking. WiFi worked well. We enjoyed the gardens and the great weather even made it possible to swim in the loch. Communication with the owner was excellent. Some constructive feedback would be 1) The top floor bedrooms could do with a refresh. We didn’t want to use them. 2) Time for some new (fluffier!) towels. 3) There was a problem with water pressure in one of the bathrooms, which made the bath unusable. We were able to work around that, but more of an issue was that there was only one shower (NB the listing suggests there are 2. I think.) While the shower did work very well, it’s not really adequate for 15 people. Overall, we were happy with the house and enjoyed everything it had to offer. We would happily book again .

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