We stayed for a New Year (Hogmanay) package and thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely one of our best UK hotel experiences. We stayed in a superior room in the main house on our first night, due to a surprise early arrival on our part. Nice big comfortable room; pity about the lights fusing in the middle of the night and no-one answering the reception phone to get someone to put them back on again. So we had the (very bright) emergency light blazing for an hour or so from 2.00am until the battery ran out. Not so good for supposedly 4-star.

For the package stay, our room was a junior suite in the Garden Mansion House annexe a couple of hundred yards from the main house and this was mostly fine. We had a nice big comfortable room with a big comfortable bed and an ample set of other furniture for all our needs. The only real problem with the room was that the hot water ran out, and on two out of three mornings there my shower was tepid to cold. I think the water system must be shared with the other rooms (though only 5 in the building, and only 4 of them in use) and the other occupants must have been in their showers before me? This really needs fixing. In all other matters where something needed attention the hotel staff were attentive and effective, but on this subject they seemed surprised / nonplussed. There was a small problem with the outside lights that needed fixing every evening so maybe there’s a time-switch connection between the two problems. The distance might be a problem in more severe weather but we were lucky and could walk backwards and forwards in dinner dress easily.

The main house included restaurant, bar and lounges, with a small dance floor for the festivities. All just the right size for the number of people and a nice balance of not too much, not too little, intimacy. Total number of guests was about 40 which made for a nice small group where everyone could relate to everyone else, which was mostly fine, though the first night several guests would not join in (they were tired from travel) and the band packed up early, leaving those of us dancing a little out on a limb. This was well rectified on Hogmanay night itself and we wished we'd practised our Scottish dances more, and had a great time.

Food in the restaurant was excellent, though the menu didn’t change for our 4 days and we found ourselves recycling on the same choices, which was a pity. But what we did have was very good ingredients very well cooked, though fish at both breakfast and dinner was (in my opinion) consistently overcooked. Fillet steak was spot on. The wine list seemed a bit odd, with a price range from the £20’s to the hundreds per bottle – we felt we needed to pay at least £30 to £40 for anything half decent, and these were very much the low end of the list (and merely OK rather than good). When I asked for a glass of port after dinner they had none and they offered me a liqueur on the house in recompense. Next day they had a choice of two very ordinary ports, one of which ran out half way through the evening. On the other hand they’re much more into the whiskies and had a choice, it was said, of over a hundred, so this seems to be a place for grain rather than grape aficionados.

The entertainment for the hogmanay package was good, with live music on all three nights – accordion bands on the first two nights, including hogmanay itself, and a string quartet the third night. The quartet seemed to have some trouble with their tuning but mercifully finished early at 9.00pm. Hogmanay night’s music ran on till 1.00am with a piper at midnight, and we were not shooed out of the lounge or bar when the music stopped, by which time several friendships had been made and conversation was able to continue, with refreshment – most pleasant. Also specially included in the Hogmanay package they laid on a trip to the nearby Culloden battlefield and an introduction from the resident ‘ghost’ – great fun, though we now know much more than we ever thought we’d want to know about the Culloden battle, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Butcher Cumberland!

Service quality was near outstanding, with the exception only of the points I’ve already mentioned, and a couple of the junior waiting staff need more direct training to attain the standards set by the rest of the staff, led by the excellent general manager, Pat(ricia). One notable point was that they nearly all remembered our name and room pretty well throughout our stay – a very welcome real sign of effort for their guests and not often done in UK hotels. Overall we had a great time – a very pleasant stay indeed – and we certainly plan to go again. The problems were very minor in the context of the whole event.