Tulloch Castle Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

For my landmark birthday my partner and I decided to revisit Scotland, where we had first visited abroad as a couple more than a decade ago. A deal for Tulloch was advertised on Virgin Experiences and we took it as a good sign- we had very fond memories of staying in a gorgeous room with lovely views. I remember Tulloch Castle as shabby but still grand. Money had been spent to refurbish it, and though it wasn't ever a five star hotel, it had a lot of charm. We arrived to a much changed venue.

We were shown to cramped, cold "bed chamber 3" up several flights of stairs, squirreled away almost at the top of the property. It was dingy, with squeaky floorboards and what can only be described as a galley style bathroom plus all the walls and wood bore dark scuffs, smears and scrapes. The idea of spending nearly a week there almost brought me to tears, so luckily the kind staff member Sarah moved us immediately to "bed chamber 4" down the hall. Large and open plan, with an original fireplace, clean bathroom, and even dining table by a window we wondered why we'd been shown to the worst of the lot in the first place. It turned out though that even in the nicer rooms everything has been neglected.

The lining of the curtains had burned on the radiators with big seared holes, it had rotted through and tears at the touch so opening the curtains at all showed their terrible condition. There was no control at all over the temperature in the room, and on the day we decided to have a lie in and catch up on the news we realised after turning on the TV that an error message flashed right across the screen every 90 seconds or so. In the bathroom our toilet flush button was loose and coming free from the wall plus the sink plunger was completely broken and most of the time we just had to remove it entirely. On our first and second morning we left the maid service placard on the door, but no one ever came and by day three we just gave up entirely and bussed our dishes and trash ourselves.

If you read this thinking it wasn't the 40th birthday I planned for myself, you'd be absolutely right. We booked Tulloch months in advance with high hopes, and while there just decided to do what we could to make the best of a really disappointing situation. The highlight of our day was probably Sai, who runs a tight ship in the kitchen but who never failed to give us a big smile in the morning and even went out of her way to try and find me the champagne the restaurant lists on the breakfast menu but of course there wasn't any. Her lovely breakfasts gave us a positive start to each day, and reception were also very kind. I hope that Bespoke, or whoever is in charge of such things will give some much needed attention to...

Went there with my partner for Hogmanay 2014 and enjoyed every moment. The castle is full of character, and the staff couldn't be more helpful, friendly, and welcoming. We went there previously in June 2014 for my partner's birthday, so this was a no-brainer for somewhere to go for the new year's eve celebrations. We were welcomed on arrival by name, before we even had to announce who we were booked in as. That's a nice touch. They even waived the usual extra charge for the room we requested.

The new year's eve package included a formal dinner, which was very enjoyable - including a piper playing in the new year. The Scots sure know how to celebrate new year, and we were not disappointed. It was wonderful to see so many people in their formal Scottish dinner wear.

We stayed in room 15, which is a four poster bed room, and one of the several haunted rooms - if you're into that sort of thing, which we are - as I run a paranormal investigations group.

You will not go hungry here. The new year's menu was 5 courses, and even the bar menu served huge portions of really good "chefy" quality food. A full Scottish breakfast is included in the price, and we struggled to be able to manage to eat even just the fry-up course.

We spent new year's day just relaxing around the grounds, which are lovely and picturesque. At night the castle is beautifully lit up and makes for some great photos.

I highly recommend the local taxi company in Dingwall, Don's taxi's, who picked us up from Inverness airport and took us back. Very reasonable rates, and they'll track your flight to make sure you're picked up and dropped off in plenty of time.

The bar is open all day and night, and there are ghost tours available most nights. Even if the ghost tour isn't being run one night you still have full access to all areas of the castle.

The selection of quality single malt whiskies in the bar is incredible, and the knowledgeable staff will help you make a choice depending on your taste and budget. They make a very good hangover cure for the next day - considering this was the day after the night before. It's a whisky liqueur with a shot of Irn Bru, and sure picks you up.

Cannot recommend this place highly enough. We made a lot of new friends, and will certainly be back as...

2 weeks in to our month in Scotland and this is the most disappointing place we have stayed in. There were a couple of positives which stopped me rating it as one star, our room was large and clean, with a modern looking bathroom, the New Zealand Sauvignon was an excellent example of this wine variety and the cheeseboard was pretty generous. Other than that, everything else was a let down. The room was bare and lacked any kind of character (it's the only hotel room I've been in with Georgian wired glass in the windows), the four poster bed was just a bare frame with no drapes of any description although the curtain rails were still in place at the top of the frame. The castle part of the hotel seems very shabby, threadbare carpets in the restaurant, damp looking walls, plaster missing from the walls in the gents toilet and an out of order cubicle. The modernised parts such as the bar seem to lack any character. Our biggest disappointment was being seated in what could best be described as a corridor for dinner instead of the main restaurant. I had a lovely view of the service storage area! We asked to be moved and were told there was no room in the main restaurant and nothing the staff could do. Eventually we were offered a table in an alcove off the main restaurant which we accepted. Food was distinctly average. Bearing in mind this is the most expensive place we are staying in in our whole month in Scotland by some margin we were really disappointed by the whole experience. Our stay was only redeemed by meeting the most wonderful couple after dinner who were on their honeymoon (and seemed equally disappointed by their experience!) and raised our spirits with great conversation - thank you M & M, you know who you are! I will not be returning to the Tulloch Castle and would advise others to...