Really disappointed with our visit and with being members of the NTS and previously Historic Scotland we have visited many historical places and homes over last 25 years. After travelling up from Glasgow the first thing we wanted to do was have some lunch but we were met with chaos at the cafe which is obviously too small and understaffed for the number of visitors.

There was a queue outside the front door standing in the pouring rain and the layout as you go into the cafe was confusing as to wether it was self service as regards certain items or wether it was all carried out by the staff. Furthermore the layout leads to queuing at the door.

Then there were only two staff serving with one being fully engaged in making hot beverages which added to the delay. However the chaos didn’t end there because when we did reach one of the serving staff with tray in hand we were told that were no seats available and that we could wait with a growing number of people with no organised system to determine who was first or that we could have takeaways to stand in the pouring rain.

We decided to walk in the rain into the town for lunch for what turned out to be an extremely nice experience before heading back to the castle for our timed visit. The rooms on show were indeed beautiful but sparse in numbers for the cost of the tickets and our walk through was over in around 30mins. The feeling that came across and from the staff was that the paying public were a necessary inconvenience which is not something we have experienced before from places like Hopetoun House, Scone Place etc.