Our visit to Barony Castle was the 2nd half of a 4 night break to Scotland and was intended to be a spot of luxury after a 2 night stay at a self proclaimed budget hotel in the form of Premier Inn Stirling.

All started well.  The hotel is at the top of a long winding drive and when you reach it, it is a stunning building! We parked up in the hotel car park and went to see if we could check in yet as we were early. Again, first impressions were good.  The Reception are was modern, yet contemporary and the receptionist was professional and courteous in telling us that our rooms were not yet available as they had had a wedding party in over the weekend and they wanted to make sure everything was ship shape ready for us to check-in at 2pm.

To kill time we took a walk around the forested grounds were we came across several serene beauty spots including a small pagoda and a waterfall – oh, and a ropes course, presumably built for team building exercises!?

After that we took a drive into the village of Peebles, which is a couple of miles down the road from the hotel.  The hotel is actually in a village called Eddleston and not Peebles as advertised. I can see why they market the hotel this way as Eddleston is more of a hamlet than a village, but I would imagine some visitors being pretty disappointed if they booked the hotel and were expecting to stay in Peebles.  Peebles is a pretty little village/town and we were looking forward to having a wander around, but being Sunday most things were closed and the weather wasn’t at its best.  However I was assured by the local Tourist information centre that the place is normally bustling and alive with things to see and do.

We returned to the hotel in time for check-in, and this time were greeted by a younger receptionist.  She was pleasant enough, but was a little pre-occupied by our car (we’d hired a Chrysler 300, Bentley look-a-like for our road trip).  It didn’t bother me too much but we were than showered with attention and it did make me wonder how differently we would have been treated had we rolled up my old Peugeot 306!?

Anyway, we got checked in and barring the lift and pool being out of order (we were told the wedding party previous had hammered the pool and the ’sensors’ were all flashing demanding maintenance) all was good ….. I pause as I’m about to sound ungrateful!

We found our room and were instantly disappointed. Had we stayed here first, the disappointment may not have been so great – however we hadn’t and we’d been spoilt by the unexpected size of our room at the Premier Inn Stirling. The room was small, the bed was a standard double and it was as hard as a board.

I do feel guilty about writing this as really the hotel was excellent value for money.  We had booked the stay through Travelzoo, the only place to go when looking for last minute deals, and a 2 night DB&B stay had only cost us £200 all in. However, I guess our expectation had been raised by unexpected quality for our previous nights stay at Premier Inn – Devere certainly couldn’t have put in a place a good nights sleep guarantee here as the bed just didn’t compare, was tiny in comparison to the King size we’d just slept in and the bedroom walls were so thin we could hear people snoring several rooms away!

The worst thing however, was the floor boards! Now as I’ve mention in a previous post, I work for a small hotel group who own several hotels in North Yorkshire and we constantly get comments about squeaky floor boards in old buildings – I know it’s impossible to stop – but this was something else! Every time someone in the next room moved, we span round as it sounded like they were in our room.  This was awful during the night! I lost count of the number of times one of us woke during the 2 nights we were there, convinced someone was in the room!

I really do want to ease up on the bad mouthing, but there’s more…..

The hotels is actually a conference centre with a myriad of different meeting rooms.   Right next door is the local ambulance station and whilst we were there the hotel was full of paramedics (complete with jump suits) attending training courses – not really what you want when you’ve planned a relaxing break away.  The hotel’s pool is ridiculously shallow, probably a health & safety requirement gone mad and to cap it all, on the second night, in rolled a coach party!

This was something I did not expect. I mean, yes, we book coach parties into our hotels, but only at our Scarborough hotels during quiet periods – this was a 4 star Devere in June!?

OK, I feel like I’ve bashed Barony Castle enough now, I guess I just expected more, maybe it’s me who has the issues.  Here’s the good stuff!  The Food – although the menu remained unchanged over the 2 nights we were there the food was delicious, and I just have to mention the cranachan! WOW – this dessert made up for all my gripes, it was simply delicious, a traditional Scottish dessert made from a mixture of whipped cream, whiskey, honey, and fresh raspberries topped with shortbread biscuits! Mmmmmm! :-p

Another thing that impressed me was the speed at which the faulty lift and pool were fixed given the remoteness of the hotel. Also the interior decoration of the public areas was really nice, very now. The staff, whilst obviously not highly trained (noticed one woman switch between cleaning and waitressing), were all very polite and friendly and always made us feel welcome.

All in all, it has to be said, I did enjoy our time on the Scottish Borders, even though I seemed to have moaned a lot. The pleasant staff and the beautiful setting allowed this Devere hotel to get away with many niggles that a ‘normal’ hotel could not. Coupled with the price and the fantastic food, Barony castle does get the thumbs up, but just…. only just!

THE GOOD

• Price
• Location
• Staff
• Breakfast
• Dinner

THE BAD

• Bed
• Room size
• Conference delegates
• Not in Peebles as advertised
• Pool, more like a kids pool.

THE UGLY

• Coach party – I understand the need…. but in June!?

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