Dog Friendly Cottages in Perthshire

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Nicola - Verified booking

  Prior to our trip to Scotland, Roxane the host, phoned in advance to ask what we would like in our welcome pack and what activities we were interested in so she could e-mail details in advance.

  Having stayed in numerous holiday cottages over the years, this is the first time we’ve had a welcome call and thought it was a lovely gesture. Directions to the cottage aren’t clear on the Sykes website but we phoned Roxane and she guided us in. Verdi cottage is bijou, but very well appointed with quality furnishings. Freshly cut flowers, bathrobes and fluffy white towels, give it a luxurious feel. I am not a dog lover and when a cottage is advertised as ‘dog friendly’ I am normally wary, but I needn’t have been. Verdi is spotlessly clean with not even the slightest whiff of dog. The welcome pack was without doubt the best we have had in a holiday cottage. Full of fresh quality local produce and bottle of good quality wine . The bathrooms are lovely and are serviced by a huge boiler which meant we always had an abundance of high pressure hot water. The main bedroom is advertised as having a super-king bed, but it is in fact king-sized. While we were staying we asked for extra towels and a couple of items that were missing in the kitchen. They were provided without question. The cottage has access to a lovely side garden with a table, chairs and BBQ. There is also a separate laundry house with washer, dryer, detergent and an abundance of spares (cleaning fluid, bin liners, toilet rolls etc.) We also had access to a log store and Athol, the owner, offered us use of his golf clubs. All at no extra cost ! Roxane, Athol and their family live in the house across the courtyard and were on hand to recommend local activities and places to eat. We spent most of the week in and around Loch Tay at Kenmore, which is stunning and great for water sports and open water swimming. A tip for those visiting the area is not to assume that you can just walk in to a pub or restaurant and get a drink/ meal. Many places are suffering from post-Covid staff shortages and are closed for part of the week. The Inn on the Tay and the Grandtully Hotel are both very good, but booking several days ahead is essential if you want to eat anywhere half decent. The hosting most definitely made our stay at Verdi cottage, nothing was too much trouble and we felt like part of the family for the week we stayed. We were genuinely sad to leave and will definitely return.

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• Rebecca - Verified booking

  If you are looking for a peaceful, comfortable and spacious holiday cottage with stunning scenery and a great Inn close by then The Old Schoolhouse comes highly recommended.

  Our stay involved four adults and a very enthusiastic but well behaved dog.  The property has a well equipped, large kitchen diner, a gorgeous sun lounge, a big but cosy and comfortable lounge and modest sized downstairs shower room and utility area. The bedrooms are of a good size and it has a nice modern bathroom (a non slip bath mat might be a good thing to consider adding). There is a pretty garden (a stream runs down the side of it which will be mentioned again shortly), plenty of driveway and the exterior of the house looks very nice. Suggestions for improvements regarding being dog/child friendly: We appreciate that at different times of the year the stream in the garden will vary in size. It might be safer to fence this off to prevent inquisitive children/water obsessed dogs from getting in. We could never let our dog off the lead in the garden as he would have gone straight in the stream (which, due to all the rain around our stay, was quite fast flowing) and then he would have got muddy pawprints inside the house. We would hate to think of what could happen to an unsupervised child in that area of the garden. A fitted stairgate at the bottom and top of the stairs would be a huge benefit. We brought one from home with us but in The Old Schoolhouse the stairs are generously wide so it was very difficult to adapt our gate to fit the width. It is stipulated in the welcome folder that dogs are not allowed upstairs (which is the same as at our home) but if someone's dog is usually allowed upstairs then the current lack of stairgate would make it very challenging to stick to. All the carpets and furniture in the lounge and sunroom are lovely. Whenever any replacements are needed then it might be an idea to avoid getting cream again as keeping paws/children's hands clean enough to not leave any marks (especially if it is soggy weather) is quite challenging. Having said the above, we all enjoyed our holiday and the location is idyllic. The Inn on the Tay nearby was very dog friendly, welcoming and serves delicious food so was a great bonus to our stay.

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• David - Verified booking

  Nice cottage but a few issues: 1.

  Dog poo (not our own dog) on the lawn (by the bench at the top of the garden) upon arrival. Also when we arrived, the dishwasher still had items in and the tumble dryer was on. Not necessarily the owners fault, but not a good first impression! 2. No light bulbs in the lamp in the main bedroom. We sent a text message about this to one of the numbers supplied by the owner but received no reply. 3. This is a dog friendly cottage, however where is the dog meant to sleep? Our dog sleeps in the kitchen at home, but this was impossible at the cottage as there is no ‘barrier’ between kitchen and stairs / route to upstairs. As the dog was not permitted upstairs it would’ve been a good idea to provide a child / dog gate at the base of the stairs. This would obviously help with those staying with children too. The very small utility was not a good place for our dog to sleep at night and he (and we) were not happy at spending the week in there…..it was barely big enough for his bed, let alone his crate and water bowl! 4. Very tiny downstairs shower and un-usable basin. In reality this is a one bathroom cottage…..especially as you can’t access it at night as the door is blocked with dog bed! 5. The gardener turned up unannounced to mow the lawn on a day when we were all sat in the garden….it would’ve been good to get some sort of warning / note in the information booklet about what day and when the gardener was due to arrive. On the plus side, the location was very good, the cottage itself is of a good size and the garden is very nice to sit in. Good to have parking for two cars and nice to have the external power supply for my plug in hybrid car.

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• Margaret - Verified booking

  Ciaran cottage was generally comfortable, clean, nicely decorated & fairly well equipped.

  The path is steep, as has been mentioned, & for a couple in our late 60's, could be a bit slippy & sore on the knees. Another couple of things which were mentioned in your reviews:- there was a problem with the shower drain - we had to clean it out as it was really gunged up and the sofa & chair don't offer good support for older backs like ours but I'm sure they'll be fine for younger folks. The dyson vacuum was also packed full and looked like someone might have used it to clean out the shower drain - it had definately been used to suck up something wet and it was difficult to get the contents cleaned out. There were only instructions for using the heaters & nothing for how to use the oven, hob or dishwasher but when I phoned the owner, he was very helpful and told me how to work the dishwasher and said that he was working on instructions to leave in the cottage for guests. The listing says it's an induction hob but it's not - it's a ceramic hob and it takes a while to heat up. The water pressure (another thing previously mentioned) is really bad, so fill some jugs with cold water if you want to have cups of tea during the day without waiting ages to fill the kettle. There was no sieve or potato masher - which would have been useful. I don't like to give negative feedback but hopefully this is helpful and on the whole we liked the cottage (the bed was comfy) and the views are great. I'm sure a younger couple would be happy there. The area is lovely and it's well worth a visit to the Crannog Centre and to book a boat trip on the loch. The co-op in Aberfeldy is really good and the village shop in Kenmore is handy for topping up with things.

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• Judith - Verified booking

  We were VERY DISAPPOINTED.

  The first thing to greet us when we entered the property was a hoover FULL of other peoples dirt. There was an unpleasant smell. There was grass and grit under rack on right hand side as you come in door. Dust on chairs in snug. Dust around both sofas, you could see the dust under living room sofa from standing in kitchen. The end cushion fell off the sofa and I was disgusted by what was under it. Chrome light switches were dirty from other peoples fingers. Windows were dirty. Dirty smear marks left from a dirty cloth on tv and wardrobes. Dust and food splatters on tiles beside internet and the socket for this was covered in dust. I had to clean the fridge and a cupboard before I put our food in it. There was no way I was going to use the microwave as it was filthy. There was quite a bit of oil spillage in one cupboard. Cutlery drawer has loads of crumbs in it. Food on door of cupboard under the sink.I Had to clean the kettle and toaster. I cleaned 2 of everything we were going to need and kept in on the work top and just used those.The cups were disgusting. I had to clean the bath and it’s just a matter of time before someone goes through it. The basin tap is very stiff we were worried it was going to break and the toilet roll holder is rusty. The bathroom and front bedroom really could be doing with a paint. We could not get normal to channels on the tv, the news and weather was for Cumbria not Perthshire. Th tv is high up on the wall and the sofa has no neck support so it is very uncomfortable to watch the tv. Also be careful when lighting the stove as the curtain is touching it

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