The Mansion House at Kirkhill

Reviews (3)

• Confirmed Guest

  Fantastic location. Perfect for large families/groups.

• Eggy

  We recently stayed at the Mansion House with 10 adults, and 10 children of various ages and 2 dogs.The property is an excellent size, with a great room for entertaining with plenty of comfortable seating at one end and a long dining table to seat everyone comfortably at the other end. It is in a convenient location with regards to nearby amenities and entertainment options for children and adults. The bedrooms are mostly of a decent size although there are a couple that are on the small size. The mattresses and pillows are not the comfiest. Overall the house was very warm and not stuffy. Of all the en suites most had hot water for the showers, however some did not, this may be due to a gravity fed tank system for such a large premises. The rooms without en suites had access to a shower and toilet, on the first floor this was an ok set up, however the isolated shower room on the ground floor was not up to scratch. There is a games room with a pool table which is very old and has some damage to the fabric. The hosts are very friendly and contactable and we had an issue with the cold water supply to the basement level on our first night but this was dealt with quickly first thing the next day. We had an enjoyable stay for the 3 nights and were generally happy with the property however we all felt that it would benefit with some money being spent to modernise it slightly. Which would made this a more highly desirable rental location!

• Confirmed Guest

  The Mansion at Kirkhill has the potential to be spectacularly good. The living room, dining room and hallway were fantastic socialising spaces. We loved the grand piano and that area made a great place for playing music! The house was warm and living room furniture generally comfortable. But it falls short on many aspects. I booked the house at a time when it was advertising fourteen bedrooms and sleeping over thirty guests. Our group of twenty-five people needed all of these rooms so I was surprised when, a few weeks before our dates, I noticed that the website was only offering ten rooms. Following the agency talking to the owners, we were told that they would honour our booking, so all rooms were available. It was obvious when we arrived that the basement rooms had been mothballed for some time and there was a slightly musty smell but overall the house looked welcoming. However, we found many things which were very wrong. Room twelve - two single beds, neither of which were fit for purpose ( I have photographs if needed) and the curtains fell down when closed! Room nine - the cold tap over the sink didn't work at all. Some of the beds in other rooms weren't properly made up, so bedding had to be taken from unused beds in family rooms. The duvets were thin and inadequate for winter months in Scotland and several guests said that their beds weren't at all comfortable. There was a general shortage of provision for keeping clothes. The kitchen - for a house which sleeps at least thirty people, there was one small kettle, one small teapot and one toaster. Really??? Generally, cooking equipment was not up to the standard we have come to expect from this type of property. ( We have been doing these big house breaks for over twenty years.)The hot tub - thank heavens we chose not to hire it!! Those of us who went to look at it didn't think it would have been a very pleasant experience.Possibly the most disturbing thing about our stay was on the first morning when one of our group found two totally strange young men playing pool in the games room. On being challenged, the said they had come to change the bedding in two rooms which had been vacated, which was plainly untrue as we had it as an exclusive hire for four days but even if true, what were they doing playing games in the house when it was occupied? As a group of musicians, we had instruments with us, which in total have a value of many thousands of pounds. We were seriously unimpressed with the lack of security and that these young men had just wandered into a property which was in use. I phoned the property manager who came and spoke to them but we felt vulnerable for the rest of the stay.Would we recommend Kirkhill Mansion? It is in a beautiful location and could be truly magnificent but it needs a huge amount of work done to bring this about.