Villa di Gairloch

Arriving at the Shieldaig Lodge we were greeted by a lovely gentleman who was friendly and looked after us for check in. Our deluxe room no 9 was dated and we felt a little disappointed, the hotel charge a premium for their accommodation and with the added extra of an evening meal the one night stay was in excess of £500, the windows were mouldy and looked like they hadn’t be cleaned for a very long time, the duvet which I asked for it to be feather free was lumpy and had massive areas with no quilting at all, uht milk pods not nice, the room was smaller than expected and the lighting was very poor and some didn’t work, our room was also next door to someone playing their tv very loudly! The bathroom had no room for toiletries and was very small. Dinner was above average but had issues with textures and the pairing of ingredients used in my choice of main course. I choose a vegetarian option which combined a stuffed tomato, stuffed courgette, asparagus and a puree which when combined was very sloppy and just didn’t compliment each other, the whole dish lacked texture, my husband said his venison was okay but not amazing, the Eaton mess dessert was the nicest part of my meal. We finished our evening playing pool in the games room which was enjoyable. We slept okay but the duvet was uncomfortable and not luxurious like you would expect in a four star hotel. Breakfast was once again okay but nothing outstanding, we asked for more butter and hot water to dilute the very strong decaf coffee which took ages to appear, we had to ask 3 times for the butter. The grounds are beautiful but the hotel needs some attention to keep the building maintained and up to a standard that such a stunning building deserves. We left disappointed and don’t feel we had good value for money.