“We have recently spent a lovely week at Comraich House, 3 adults, 3 teenagers and a dog.”
The cottage is very remote, the road to the nearest village of Kinloch Rannoch is single track and around 7 miles/20 minutes whilst Pitlochry with all its shops and cafe's is around 30 miles/45 minutes. There are lots of lovely shops and cafe's in Pitlochry, including a very high quality butchers and a well stocked Co Op. The tea room at Rannoch station was very nice, well worth a visit and the village of Aberfeldy is around 25 miles/50 minutes away. There are lots of walks and cycling paths nearby, some further afield like the Hermitage and Faskally woods are worth the travelling too.
The house is just as described, set in beautiful woodlands and right opposite the Loch. The gardens were well loved by our dog who enjoyed exploring safely and the outside table got plenty of use in the sunny weather. The house is large, airy and well equipped as a home away from home. The internet is indeed very slow (as described), you couldnt really use it for browsing but emails came through intermittently. There was no mobile phone signal at all but a landline phone is installed just in case you need to access the outside world, the TV had Sky along with a few DVD'S for the evenings and there were board games & books for any rainy days.
The sitting room was well laid out and comfortable with plenty of space for everyone, it was nice having the patio doors in here open on sunny days. The kitchen was well equipped, although the dinner plates didn't fit in the microwave and there was no whisk, otherwise it had everything you would need. The kitchen also had a large dining table which we used most of the time making the separate dining room a bit surplus to requirements. You could probably convert this area to a downstairs bedroom for less mobile customers.
The downstairs utility room was really useful with an extra fridge and chest freezer for larger groups as well as a downstairs shower which came in really handy. The 4 upstairs bedrooms were lovely, two were ensuite and there was a family bathroom as well. 2 out of the 3 upstairs bathrooms had baths with hand held shower heads whilst the third was a walk-in shower. We all ended up using the walk-in shower ensuite, or the downstairs shower for ease, so adding shower fixings over the baths in the other two bathrooms would make things a lot simpler for most families. Water pressure was good for the first person to shower but some time is needed between users for the pressure to recover.
The whole area had a power cut on our first night in the cottage just as we were cooking dinner, luckily we have been holidaying in the Highlands for 20 years so were well prepared for this. We had plenty of torches and had brought a BBQ with us so managed to finish cooking the meal by torchlight, however a few torches and/or candles readily accessible in the house would be helpful for anyone less prepared for this. We weren't sure what to do with our rubbish when the bins were full so we emailed the house manager on the details provided and he replied quickly explaining the housekeeper would dispose of it so no need to put the bins out on a set day. All in all the house is lovely and we would recommend it, a few tweaks as mentioned would make it even better.
Excellent feedback and much appreciated. The suggestions are helpful and very sensible. We have booked the house ourselves in mid October and will be addressing the small things that need to be updated, replaced or changed. One of the constraints with a property this popular is that you do get a little wear and tear from enthusiastic guests and there is often little opportunity to do these jobs between bookings. Many thanks again for the kind observations and our house manager will be particularly pleased with the report on cleanliness and presentation
Many thanks again for the kind observations and Property Owner
