Exquisite Kilmun Cottage S59540

ID: S59540

  • Bedrooms 8
  • ・ Sleeps 18
  • ・ Pets Yes

About this property

Old Argyll House is a beautifully restored but comfortable, historic 17th century house with 2 acres of private gardens. It is luxuriously equipped as a holiday home for up to 18 guests. The property is located in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, by the side of the Holy Loch, Argyll in Scotland.

The house is well situated for sight-seeing around the West Coast. The immediate area is renowned for some of the best walking in Scotland, and it is a great base for fishing, riding, shooting, golf, sailing or cycling. The owners have included 6 fishing rods, 8 bikes for different sizes (with helmets), and 4 bags of golf clubs. There is loads to do in the area and some great local pubs and restaurants, but the house is certainly comfortable enough for people who do not want to go anywhere else.

The house is situated on the shores of the Holy Loch, adjacent to the Argyll Forest Park, and is perfectly placed for exploring the Cowal peninsula, the West of Scotland generally, and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Two minutes from the Benmore Botanic Gardens, it is a 10 minute drive from Dunoon, 35 from Inverary, and 40 from Loch Lomond or the Island of Bute. The "long drive" to Glasgow is less than an hour and a half via the M8 and ferry from MacEnroes Point at Gourock. The property is just 70 minutes from Glasgow Airport.

The walking all around is absolutely fantastic, and from the house itself there are half a dozen spectacular routes that take visitors into some magical places in the Forest Park. Guests can do circular routes that take anything from an hour and a half to eight or nine hours. The owners have left maps and guides in the sitting room, and more details are available from the tourist office in Dunoon.

Cycling is a really great way to see the scenery in the area, and the topography is such that riders don’t need to do much back-breaking hill work. The owners have equipped the house with 6 kid’s bikes of different sizes and a couple for grown ups.

Generally, the property is fantastically positioned to see some of the world’s most spectacular scenery. The views are not bad from the house itself, but a drive up to Loch Fyne and down to Loch Lomond, or into the Kyles of Bute, or down the Maccrahanish/Mull of Kintyre peninsula, reveals vistas that are absolutely breathtaking. If the weather is no good, visitors are only 75 minutes from Glasgow by Ferry and M8, and less than 2 hours from Edinburgh if the traffic is okay. They are both great cities to visit.

Benmore Botanic Gardens is only three miles away towards Loch Eck, and are an absolutely amazing set of gardens planted and cared for originally by the Younger family, who previously owned the house. There are also awesome trees, including the tallest in Britain, and a great tea shop.

Strone’s pretty, 9 hole golf course is well-signposted, just over a mile away. Innellan is another nice 9 hole course about 15 minutes away. Cowal has 18 holes and is a bit closer, just above Dunoon. There is also a 9 hole course 25 minutes away at Tighnabruich with lovely views up the Kyles of Bute. Visitors are welcome any time there is not a match on all three courses. Guests are welcome to use the four sets of clubs in the house.

The River Eck is one of the most expensive trout stretches in the West of Scotland and mostly carved up by timeshare. Fortunately though, there is a mass of very good value options for both loch and river fishing locally, with daily and weekly permits available. The owners have supplied half a dozen rods and some basic kit, spinning and casting.

The property is really well served with good pubs. Whistlefield Inn and Coylet Inn, up the side of Loch Eck at 10 and 5 minutes respectively, are both highly recommended. The owners have included menus in the house information pack. The more easily walkable pubs are both fine as well, providing big portions of good, basic pub food. Dunoon has dozens of cafes, bars, takeaways and restaurants. The Loch Fyne Oyster Bar trades a bit on reputation price-wise but is a landmark destination in these parts and only about 35 minutes away.

Accommodation

The house consists of highest standard of four star quality throughout with 8 bedrooms (5 doubles, two twin or triples, one bunk room) and 3 bathrooms.

With a large sitting room with open fire, wood-panelled dining room with open fire, kitchen-breakfast room with Aga, downstairs snug with big TV, DVD and wood-burner, plus a games room and a separate snooker room, the living accommodation is flexible and comfortable enough to suit most types of parties.
The 2.5 acre garden, like the house, is absolutely unique. Originally built by the family of the Duke of Argyll in 1693, the house was owned in Victorian times by the Younger family, who founded the amazing Benmore Gardens a couple of miles away, which still contain the tallest trees in the UK. They also planted a huge variety here. With streams, waterfalls and a huge variety of plants, it’s simply a stunning garden.
There’s a croquet set, football goal, cricket and badminton sets, a 13 foot trampoline, barbecue and the all important “midge machine” in the garden. As well as the ¾ sized billiard table in its own room, there is a small games room downstairs with a dartboard plus a multifunction entertainment table with table football, air hockey, table tennis, mini-snooker etc. There is also the sauna to enjoy. In addition there is a great selection of games and jigsaws as well as a pretty decent library and over 100 CDs. The snug features a 32” widescreen TV with CD surround-sound, Sky Sports & Movies plus a variety of videos and DVDs.

Nearby points of interest

  • Loch Lomond Shores

Reviews (5)

  • Donna

    Thank you, we all had an amazing time and wished we were there for longer. Your house is stunning and the renovations you have done so far are beautiful. I have asked everyone and nobody has any negative comments. We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay. On my birthday we went to the Strone Inn for dinner and that was great too, lovely place and Linda is great at cooking - diet starts on Monday when I go back to work! I can honestly say no one had anything bad to say about any part of the holiday apart from it wasn't long enough. As we had a wide range of ages from 11 weeks to 87, it was great having the snug so the ones who wanted to party late could and even had their own beer fridge down there! The rooms with 3 beds on the 2nd floor were great too as we had 2 children so they slept up there just a wee bit quieter for them. I was prepared for it to feel a bit eerie being so old, but, the house has a lovely feel to it. Everyone felt we didn't have enough time to appreciate everything round about so we will at some point book it again. Thank you again for my birthday present!

  • Cameron

    The weekend was fantastic. I really wasn’t expecting the house to be just as nice as it was and I thought all the facilities were brilliant. 5/5 without a doubt.

  • Sara Y

    Everything was clean and tidy and our expectations were exceeded in every way. As we had 16 people in the house we thought we may be falling over each other, but there was plenty of room for everyone. The added bonus was downstairs where the children played and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was also a delight at eating times where we could cater for everyone around the huge table and decadent dining room. I would recommend the house extremely highly and should I be in a position where I have so many people wanting to stay together then I shall definitely be returning here.

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