Dog Friendly Ayrshire Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Kay - Verified booking

  First time I have stayed at Ardlochan cottage but iv been coming to Culzean since the 80’s as a child and iv stayed in all the rentable cottages on the estate.

  It’s a lovely cottage inside and out. It’s a lot bigger inside than the others. The underfloor heating is a lovely bonus. The outside back garden is private from view as you do have visitors/walkers go by as it’s so near to the beach. Handy to also have a drive for your car so it’s easier to unpack/pack. Other cottages have a bit of a walk from the car park spaces. Other visitors who have left reviews about the hot water are correct. There does seem to be an issue with the hot water if you have multiple baths/showers one after another as the water goes from hot to cold. We got around this issue being a party of 4 (my parents in their 60’s and my son) having morning or evening showers to let the water heat up again. I didn’t find a problem with the wifi. I know others have commented on this. I logged into the cottage wifi. Password can be found in the black cottage file. I was able to connect my iphone and my kindle fire to access the internet, order something online and upload photos to social media in the kitchen/living area. The signal was weaker in the twin bedroom and outside which is to be expected. The back garden is a sun trap on the right day. We were lucky enough to be able to experience this. There is a lot of wildlife in the garden which is lovely to watch. The only issue with the garden is it’s not 100% fenced which might put some people off but it is stated on the information about the property that this is the case and that dogs might escape. We didn’t have an issue with our dog escaping but we did have a dog access the garden and try to come into the property, this didn’t happen as our dog saw to that. Obviously this wasn’t ideal as we had a 2.5yr old and our own dog. It’s very quiet and 2 minutes from the beach. It’s near to a lovely wood and the children's outdoor play area and swan pond. It’s a bit of a walk if you have younger children or elderly to the cafe and visitor centre compared to some of the other cottages. But it was perfect for our party as my son loves to walk. My parents said it’s their favourite cottage on the estate and would love to stay here again due to the size of the cottage and the outside space. Overall an amazing stay in a beautiful setting/cottage which has so many positives. We will definitely be back soon.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  Lovely refurbished place, the description was accurate and we thought the location was good for ourselves.

  A few minor things, none of which affected our holiday in any significant way, but the owner may want to have knowledge of; The internal doors opening on to the carpet require the bottom of these doors adjusting as it was a struggle to push to open and close. As we had dogs with us, we needed to keep door shut, so restricting the area for our dogs to the hard floor areas. We received a call about the heating, we checked it out and it was very hot, although the thermostat registered 15* degrees, we lowered it to 13 degrees and turned the individual radiator thermostats to their lowest, this made a difference. However, the radiator in the landing, which was invaded and had no access does not have an individual thermostat and if it did, it wouldn’t have made any difference as we couldn’t reach it. This raditator continued to produce some heat. The walled controller having been lowered to maximum of 13 degrees did however help. A few more kitchen funerals would help if we had not been eating out all the time would be necessary for a long stay. The amount of stairs were not a problem for us, but the depth of tread which makes them steep was a problem for an older visitor who came to see us. We couldn’t get the STV app to work on the main TV, we didn’t use the others. Please don’t think this is a complete criticism as your place suited us and we were happy to have used the place. Good luck for the future. Paul

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• Sophie - Verified booking

  Lovely cottage in a fantastic location, with the beach just a short stroll away and the whole of the Culzean Estate to explore.

  This was it’s saving grace as unfortunately the facilities and welcome were severely lacking; it felt like camping at times! On arrival, the cottage was freezing cold as all the windows had been left open. We were also without power for 6 hours on the second day, meaning no hot water for the power shower and no way of cooking as the oven and hub are electric. The beds and sofas were all extremely uncomfortable and there was no rug in the living area so it was hard to find somewhere comfortable to relax. Pictures and other home comforts seemed to have been removed, making it feel very basic indeed. Sadly, we didn’t feel very welcome: only very basic information was provided, there was no welcome pack, no starter logs for the woodburner and no details of where to buy them, not even a pint of milk or single teabag to make a drink when we arrived. The kitchen was also lacking basic essentials such as handwash, washing up liquid, foil/cling film, bin bags, not even any kitchen scissors! It felt like the emphasis was entirely on COVID safety and that we were an inconvenience for wanting to stay there. Such a shame as it really is a beautiful location

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• Elizabeth - Verified booking

  We have just (reluctantly!

  ) returned from a fabulous week, walking in a beautiful area and relaxing in this lovely cottage. The cottage was extremely comfortable & very warm (too warm at times for us northerners!) but, most importantly to us, in an idyllic situation, not only being metres from the beach, but also having the whole of the fabulous Culzean Estate to wander through. We would suggest a couple of very minor niggles to easily correct to give absolute perfection in our view; the double duvet was too small for its cover & also not really big enough for 2, relatively small people. It would be helpful to know how to turn the heating down properly, especially at night to avoid the boiler constantly switching rather noisily on & off (this might be inevitable with a ground source pump, though?) A proper dishcloth/brush and some sort of pan scourer would be helpful rather than just an ineffective j-cloth (and would be more eco-friendly as could be washed & re-used!) Don't let these niggles put you off - it is a lovely cottage in a beautiful situation & well-priced in our view.

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• Emma - Verified booking

  The cottage was great.

  The location was perfect, close to a lovely beach and in the grounds of Culzean Castle. The castle grounds are vast and beautiful, we spent a couple of days just exploring the grounds and visiting the castle. The cottage facilities were really good, with everything you could want for a holiday. The cottage was clean and warm which was lovely after a day out walking. There was a lovely garden which the dog loved, and we saw rabbits out there everyday which the children thought was great. The only issue was the shower did not work properly which was a bit annoying and we had to make do with baths. The shower heat control did not work it just made a clicking sound when you turned it. The shower alternated between boiling hot and freezing cold with no in between. I saw that this had been mentioned in previous reviews so it’s a shame it hadn’t been addressed by the time we visited. However, we still had a lovely time abc everything else was perfect.

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