Roman Camp Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

I love a day out in the country, to jump in the car or on a bus and leave the city behind. And what do you do once you've finished enjoying the peace and tranquility? Lunch of course. You go for lunch!

Callendar is one of those stunning Scottish places you can visit without having to travel for hours from the big towns. You can enjoy the wee shops and a donder down the river before heading for a nice meal. For our nice meal we went to a house, a very big house in the country, because our lunch venue was the exquisite Roman Camp Hotel.

It is one of those amazing destinations that makes you feel like you're starring in your own romantic movie, you know tree lined driveway, gravel paths, archways, Rose bushes, a Robin landing on your outstretched hand as a string quartet accompanies your every footstep. (maybe some of those are more imagined than real...)

The inside is just as stunning as out. It's all high ceilings, elegant paintings and wooden panelling, the epitome of rural luxury, all of its near 400 year heritage very much on display. The hotel makes the most of these spaces as it first invites you into the comfortable lounge for menu perusal, canapés and an aperitif. There is so much to be said for relaxing in an armchair whilst you decide on your dinner and chew over what you are going to chew on. There is that interesting balancing act going on, one where traditional and luxurious tries not to descend into twee, stuffy or heaven forbid pretentious. The Roman Camp does this rather well, the service is professional and unobtrusive, but friendly. The atmosphere refined, certainly, but relaxed and welcoming. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the menu. The chef could have played it straight down the line with classic Scottish fare done well, but instead there's some pretty cheeky twists thrown in. That is what I liked best about the Roman Camp, you are lulled into thinking you are getting solid reliable Mark Darcy, Jamie from Love Actually or even King George VI Colin Firth and instead you get Kingsman Harry Hart instead...

Whilst you are busy making your mind up, you are thoughtfully provided with some wee Canapés, just to tantalise you with what is to come. A mini Cheese quiche / tartlet, a haggis bonbon and an assortment of nuts were perfect nibbles to accompany your first drink. Hot and delicious you simply can't wait to see what's coming next.

After ordering we continued relaxing in the lounge until we were told our lunch was ready. We bid au revoir to the comfortable lounge and were taken into the restaurant. Well I thought it was my wedding day all over again. The tables are all dressed, candles burned as brightly as the fire in the gorgeous hearth, this place was magical on a grim winters morning, I wonder what it's like at night. We were seated and served freshly baked bread along with our starters, and from here good just got even better...

Read the full review on the Scottish Food Review website.

The Roman Camp should very much be on your list if you are up Callendar way, highly...

Roman camp has been on my bucket list for at least 30 years, ever since hearing it had been voted one of the most romantic hotels in Scotland, so I was very excited when we took the opportunity to break a journey to the north of Scotland and have an overnight stay there. And by way of explanation for the rating of this review….. one of the key things I ask myself when I write a Tripadvisor review is whether or not I felt we received value for money - sadly a resounding no for Roman camp - even taking into consideration the discounted room upgrade. |There were a couple of aspects of the hotel that were wonderful, namely the staff and the location.|However, when you set your prices at the high end there comes an expectation that the customer experience will match if not exceed that cost.|We were lucky to be upgraded, had we not our bill for dinner bed and breakfast would have been well over £600. As it was it was £500 and still I feel that was excessive.|The public rooms are cosy and inviting. It feels like you are in somebody’s home although the amount of artificial flowers isn’t really to my taste.|We were in a bedroom that on first appearances looked lovely but actually living in the room you notice things like thread bare fabrics, windows that don’t stay open or can’t open, chipped crockery and water glasses, very poor lighting, a rubber bath plug on a chain that didn’t hold the water, black mould in the shower and missing grout between tiles.|We were on a set D, B&B rate but noted when looking at the menu that dinner for three courses with £75 a head.|When we booked we were asked if we wanted to dine in the restaurant or the bistro and opted for the restaurant, had we realised we would be the only people in the restaurant We would perhaps have chosen differently..|Very disappointingly, the menu consisted of only two choices for starter, two for main and three for dessert.|The wine list was equally economical in terms of options and I would suggest somebody goes over it with a fine tooth comb, not just for spelling mistakes but also accuracy.|The lighting in the restaurant was so poor that we had to turn our phone torches on to see what we were eating. I’m all for a bit of atmosphere but that was just a bit too dark.|That said, I cannot fault the quality of the cooking. The food was absolutely delicious, albeit quite small portions.|They say “never meet your heroes”, and I’m sorry to say that this was the hotel equivalent of that experience. Sadly, it’s very unlikely we...

We were booked here as part of a 12 day tour. It was myself and my 16 year old daughter and upon arriving they needed to separate the queen bed into 2 beds. Been on the books for weeks, no big deal, the staff were very nice.||This is a very old hotel referring to being hundreds of years old. It was very interesting to look at and tour but the rooms felt very old. For us it was the unusable WiFi that caused us to move to an airport hotel as we were leaving the next day. I do WiFi for a living so spoke to manager and they knew it barely worked and I explained how easy it was to fix, but it seems they are trying to sell the property so expect nothing to be upgraded. We were flying home the next day so downloading things were very important and they are a cellular 'hole' so could not use my phone for data either.||We did not try the in-house hotel, but did eat on the smaller restaurant on the property and it was pretty good. Strange, the very small staff looked all under 21 and sure enough the food we ordered wasn't what showed up, but they sorted it all out and it was pretty good.||You can walk into town from the street. Don't try the river walk (which they are close to) as the path we were sent down ended with barbed wire.. Hence we walked all the way back to the street.||We ended up asking guide to just move to a modern hotel by the airport and that's what happened. Didn't ask for money back, just took the cost. Hotel just wasn't for us and our...