Dornoch Castle Hotel - Whisky Bar & Dining - Takeaway Pizza — Restaurant in Great Britain

We stayed at the Dornoch Castle Hotel as a 'treat' on our way round the NC500. Though a bit on the expensive side our meal in the restaurant was well prepared, presented and excellent quality. The service was very good though the restaurant itself was not based in the castle but a more recent extension to the back which lacked character. Other aspects of our stay were a disappointment too. We booked two of the standard garden rooms and were told the hotel was dog friendly. When we turned up we were not allowed in the bar to register as we had the dogs. We had to access our room via muddy grass which meant we could not help but dirty the carpet. Down the side of the restaurant was a fire door wedged open with a rock which led to our room. These were supposed to have been 'recently refurbished for the 2021 season'. This apparently meant; marked carpets, plaster filled repairs on the wall, a hole and mark on the wall where it looks like a picture had hung, badly fitted and stiff door handles, no shower curtain, broken shower room mirror light, broken and damaged low level shower screen which meant the shower room floor was soaked when showering, and two single mattresses to make up a double bed. There was little sound insulation which meant every door closing could be felt, bathroom fans next door could be heard, and we could hear every movement of the guests above us as well as when they flushed the toilet. At about midnight the fire alarm went off. We evacuated through the fire door down unlit steps into the garden and waited. No staff were on hand at all to manage the situation. Eventually we went back inside when the alarm stopped and found a member of staff at the fire control panel who told us to wait in the garden where we had been. There was no sign of a fire and no one came so we eventually went back to our rooms. The organisation in an emergency was a shambles. We did complain to the manager when checking out who listened, apologised and reduced our bill for the room as a token gesture but even then it was overpriced for what we experienced. On the positive side, the restaurant again was a highlight with and excellent breakfast. However this hotel is not one to recommend except possibly if you are just using...

Midweek break at Dornoch Castle , first night in the annexe room was pretty bad with banging doors, yelping dog and poor insullation between the rooms, why cant people hold onto a door until it closes, very thoughtless in many cases. |We addressed the situation with Bea the manageress in the morning and she immediately gave us an upgraded room in the main castle building, my wife has mobility issues and thats why we chose the ground floor annexe, the Cathedral view room is up one flight on a winding stair .. it may not suit everyones need depending on your mobility. However a quite restful rest off stay was enjoyed with the change off room. ||Our next issue was the two drawers in the bathroom vanity unit filled with water when the shower was used, the shower was very slow in draining away and Im not sure if that was part of the problem, possible backup of water.. this time Gale came to the rescue and the problem was quickly dealt with .||Breakfast is a buffet affair with eggs, bacon, cold meat ,cheese etc and all off a good standard, we had dinner once and my venison dish was not particularly warm , however after all the other problems I did not want to say as we would have been viewed the guests from hell, I wasn't a massive issue just could have been a bit warmer.||In general it was good experience and we would like to pass on our thanks to Bea and Gale for sorting out the issues, unfortyunatly during our stay a member off staff collapsed and passed away whilst on duty, we would like to pass on our condolences to the family and Castle staff at...

Great location, garden, good staff , fabulous food and a characterful building. The town itself is so lovely and very characterful. We received a lovely welcome. The bar area wih huge whisky selection was lovely. All staff were very frienly and helpful. Jamie deserves a special mention. He looked after us so well and had a great personality. The Peperoni pizza and Blue murder pizza at dinner were excellent. We normally are not a fan of pizza but these were the best ever! You will not be disappointed. Dogs were allowed in the bar area which had tables laid up for meals as well as lovely comfortable sofas but not in the restaurant. We were staying for one night with our dog and were allocated a ground floor double room in a more modern wing of the hotel. The room was ok but soundproofing in our was the real probblem. We could here literally everything from rooms at the side and above. A man in the nextdoor room conducted a work call at 10pm for an hour on his mobile phone at normal speaking volume. Not only could we hear every single word the man was saying, but also hear some of the conversation of the person he was speaking to. His alarm clock on his phone went off early the next morning and it was as if it was directly next to us. We would definately stay here again as we enjoyed our visit but would take some ear plugs with us in case we are allocated one of these particular rooms. We didnt stay for breakfast but the selection looked absolutely delicious as we walked through...