Dog Friendly Cottages 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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• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  Lovely large house, great location, close to shops, park etc. The house was very well equipped and stocked all our essentials ie toilet rolls, washing up liquid, even tin foil, cling film and sandwich bags. There were 10 of us split over a 2 week stay at Braidwood, 5 children & 5 adults. The house had plenty of large rooms to accommodate us all. The children really enjoyed the garden and the park out the back gate. We all walked round the park by the loch, the kids enjoyed playing on the playground. Made our way back with a walk up Queens Street. I enjoyed sitting in the garden at night & early morning, while everyone was in bed, having a cup of tea and a cigarette, it was so peaceful and the different birds certainly kept me entertained, the robin especially came to greet me every morning. 2022 was my 25th year of staying in Scotland for my annual summer holiday, my late mother's people were all Dalbeattie folk born & bred. I lost my mum 8 years ago, also losing my eldest brother 4 weeks after mum's passing. They are laid to rest in and around their favourite places, Sandyhills, Rockcliffe etc. They are all together at Sweetheart Abbey alongside my aunt (mum's sister) and her son (my cousin) My Summer holiday are sort of like a pilgrimage to visit my loved ones resting place and a promise I made too my mum on her last visit to Sweetheart Abbey, that every year I would visit with flowers. I also visit the Haugh of Urr were some of mum's family are laid to rest. I hope that one day I will get to stay at Braidwood again, I'm opting for a much quieter holiday next year without all the grand kids. As always booking through Discover Scotland my holiday is always 100% satisfactory. Great Property in a Great Location...Thank You for an amazing holiday on behalf of myself and family members who stayed with us. See You All Next Year

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• Elaine - Verified booking

  So dirty on our arrival that the cleaners had to visit till late to deep clean the kitchen and return the next morning to vacuum the whole house to remove dog hairs everywhere.

  We had to eat out day one after a long journey and only had the house to ourselves at noon day 2. It was really cold when we arrived - the heating is set and can’t be changed. One thermostat was at 16*. As the daytime high was 13* it was very uncomfortable and didn’t warm up till day 3. The downstairs bathroom flooded into the bedroom and hall because of a blocked drain. To resolve this we cleaned out the blockage and applied Drain-o. Not a pleasant experience. The water is only heated twice a day, to a very high temperature, which is fine when we were only 3 in number. When all 10 arrived it was either scalding hot or cold. Then we had to wait 7 hours for it to start heating up again. We were instructed on how to fix that. We had to turn it on during the day and remember to turn it off at night. Next morning we were all woken up before 8 by a frightening noise from the boiler pipes. It sounded like it was going to explode. As we were now familiar with the boiler works, we tried to solve it but it persisted 30 minutes. Less importantly, basic maintenance hasn’t been done. Skirting board in bathroom falling off wall, numerous cracked tiles, old gaping mastic and grout, and a bathroom door that can’t close. There isn’t effective ventilation to any of the bathrooms - no fans that can be switched on or come on automatically. With 10 people, that can be unpleasant. On the other hand, the beds are very comfortable. We have been offered £50 refund. This was a long planned family reunion. We live all over the world and can’t get together regularly. It was such an important occasion marred by the defects of the accommodation.

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• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  1. The property was very well equipped and very clean. 2. The location and views were wonderful. BUT 3. 2 of the bedrooms were through rooms ie you had to go through one to get to another which was not made clear in the description of the property and was not suitable for different households. We had 6 households in the 6 rooms. Our group was not happy with this. 4. The water pressure was very low such that if more than one shower or bath was run at the same time, there was no water or it ran cold, especially upstairs. We had 7 adults all wanting showers after coming in from a walk or a cycle, and in the morning, so we had to go one at a time. It would have been totally unworkable with 12 which the house could take. I know there is a water shortage but a business like this with paying multiple users, needs to find an alternative means of water supply if as I suspect, this is a private spring supply. A borehole for example. 5. The track was actually terrible, and is just getting worse with continual use. We are used to driving up forestry roads and were prepared for it but there was one particular pothole which was dangerously deep and could not be avoided. There had been forestry work closeby so perhaps it had been made worse by machinery. But the owners need to go and look for themselves. It has reached an unacceptable state now. For such an upmarket and expensive property the access must be improved.

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• Gemma - Verified booking

  We were a little disappointed to he honest.

  We found the house quite dirty, not very homely and lacking a nice touch really. There was thick dust all around the edges of the floors, worktop hadn't been cleaned on arrival. Rust on toilet brush/bins, floors were dirty in kitchen. Stool in living room quite stained. Comfort wise it was ok, beds were comfy and nice linen/towels. Very low ceilings in bedrooms and quite squashed in furniture. It was nice to have dishwasher, washing machine etc. Kitchen reasonably well equipped however no space for any food of your own etc all cupboards full of random duplicates of pots/dishes etc. No essentials like oil, salt which is always nice I think. Really cheap soap in handwashes, which is a shame. Few items broken, toilet seat upstairs not the correct fit. Dustpan handle brush broke off in my hand when I picked it up. Planter outside with dead plant in. Which I feel is an easy fix to make it look a little nicer. We have stayed in many holiday lets all over the country and although we appreciate the money spent I feel personally there was little effort into making this a nice place to stay. A bad review is not something I bother doing unless I feel totally necessary to feedback so I hope it is taken on board and used constructively.

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