A couple more things
I promised a few more details of Gleneagles, now we’re home and there’s been time to reflect on our experience there.
Our plans were made some months ago because, initially, we planned to be here last November. Not exactly the best time to be in Scotland, perhaps, but we thought that if the weather turned nasty, “The Glorious Playground” would provide sufficient activity/diversion for us if we decided to stay in the hotel for a day or two. In fact, our choice of hotel was made on exactly that basis with plenty of opportunities and with a level of comfort that ensured we wouldn’t mind spending time there. Oh, and the other attraction was the wide range of restaurants on offer there, from the standard hotel restaurant to a two Michelin starred dinner venue and other, less fancy places like a pizzeria and a brasserie. We thought we’d enjoy a few days in five star comfort.
Our plans for last November were thwarted by lockdowns and all of that, so we moved our booking to August, thinking that by then we’d be back to some kind of normal and looked forward to our stay. I had marked a date in my diary, two weeks before our arrival because, in spite of the email saying how very much they were looking forward to our visit and reminding us of all the activities they couldn’t wait to share with us, when I tried to book my swimming sessions I had a swift reply saying that I could only do this 14 days before our arrival. It will come as no surprise that at the crack of dawn on that day, I emailed my preferred times with second and third choices. Surprising then, that it was more than three days later that they replied, saying sorry but all swimming sessions were fully booked.
What?
Actually they could offer me 11.30am on one day (when we’d already planned and reserved one of our castle visits) and some similarly inconvenient time on another day. I wasn’t impressed and told them so, asking how many slots they had to offer, given that they filled so quickly.
46.
Did I really want to swim in an hotel pool where there were already 46 bookings? Not really. I gave up but took my swimming things just in case.
The hotel is vast with several buildings/wings with accommodation. We had booked a fairly standard room with no view - we didn’t need to look out over a golf course and didn’t plan to spend much time there. So we were on the third floor of the main building, a good walk from both lifts. Our room was fine and had I remembered to take a photograph of it and the spacious bathroom when it was looking pristine, I’d have shared! It was reasonably quiet most of the time, but occasionally we would hear a child running along the corridor outside, a crying baby or a barking dog. We were always aware that the hotel was full, except that surprisingly, given that only one person/party could use the lift at a time, we never had to wait long for it. Perhaps everyone here is fit and well enough to use the staircase!
The Covid situation meant that everything had to be booked well in advance, including restaurants here. We’d given this some thought: Dinner in the main Strathearn restaurant (above) was included in our rate but we could opt to dine elsewhere and our account would be adjusted accordingly. We thought we'd take advantage of the two star Andrew Fairlie restaurant one evening, eat more informally in the brasserie on the night of our arrival (having just come from another Michelin starred dinner the previous night!) maybe have a pizza on the night before we left for Yorkshire and dine in the Strathearn on the other two nights.
The menu in the Birnam Brasserie on our first night looked pretty good and we changed and went down for dinner in good time for a drink first. A choice of bars proved the first challenge and we didn’t linger in our first discovery, finding ourselves in a noisy room filled with cafe style seating and people eating bar food. Not exactly the relaxing venue we had in mind, so we moved to another, plusher looking place where we were seated in a comfortable room, entirely on our own where we ordered our G&Ts and decided we needed to do a bit of research here.
We soon wished we could have bottled some of that peace and quiet though, because the Birnam Brasserie was full and the noise levels were beyond belief. With no soft surfaces to absorb the normal clatter and chatter of a busy restaurant, it was never going to be a peaceful experience but the table adjacent to ours was creating more than enough commotion to be going on with. Well beyond the toddler’s bedtime, the repeated orders for chocolate ice cream did nothing to pacify him and our relaxed dinner for two was anything but.
It was somewhat of a relief to know that we had a table in the Andrew Fairlie restaurant the following night then, and judging from everyone’s reaction when that name was mentioned, we were probably in for a treat.
We opted for the tasting menu with wine pairings and yes indeed, not a single mouthful disappointed. The staff were delightful - not at all stuffy and happy to stand and chat, explain and discuss ingredients and presentation.
When we checked into the hotel, we discovered that we actually had reservations here for two nights and considered cancelling one of them, but in the light of our experience we considered ourselves very lucky indeed and looked forward to a return visit!
By now, we realised that if we were to make the most of our stay, we needed to choose where to eat and drink carefully if we wanted a grown up evening. Some venues, like this cafe, were open all day and were generally busy the whole time because there were a lot of families here. I guess we hadn’t given much thought to the type of people who would be here at this time of the year. Golfers, yes; people here to enjoy country sports, the hunting shooting fishing bunch, but we were surprised at the number of families - large families - given the eye watering prices. Speaking to a member of staff about this he agreed, the restrictions on foreign travel had resulted in more families choosing to stay in the country this summer, but under normal circumstances there would be a greater number of international guests and the hotel was popular with families from Russia, the Middle East and China. It appeared that we had completely overlooked the description of Gleneagles as a “family friendly hotel” or at least, not quite thought that through.
Well, that description on the menu of the Strathearn restaurant may have been a little exaggerated, because in spite of the website recommendations regarding a dress code, when having dinner here we were more likely to find polo shirts and shorts than exquisitely gowned ladies. I was pleased I hadn’t got the tiara out of the bank (!) Large families were very much in evidence here too with tables for eleven or twelve being fairly commonplace. At breakfast and dinner, my Hero and I were generally seated in the Orangerie, a brighter, lighter and rather quieter area with more tables for two and it was here that we chatted to someone who was very well placed to advise on our dining arrangements, especially when we said we had a booking for the informal Dormy restaurant on our last evening. “Come back here”, was the advice and with a little jiggery-pokery, that’s exactly what we did. We appreciated that wise advice immensely, especially when we saw the menu for that night.
The dinner menu was always pretty good here and it was a bonus to find that Beef Wellington was there on our last evening. Excellent choice!
Given that we spent our days out and about, I guess our Gleneagles experience focussed mostly on mealtimes; breakfast and dinner. We really couldn’t fault the quality of the food and the staff were utterly charming, every one of them. Having a better understanding of what to expect now, we would manage our stay differently and would consider a return visit - in term time!
And what of my swim? Well, on the morning we left home, restrictions were relaxed in Scotland, meaning that sessions in the pool no longer had to be booked and it was open for general swimming all day. In addition to this main family pool, right there in the background, those dark alcoves lead to a quieter lap pool and it was there where I headed when we got back from one of our adventures. On that day, when it was a bit wet outdoors, believe me when I say the water in the family pool was barely visible in between the swimmers, there were so many packed in. About half a dozen adults were in the very dark disco-like lap pool and I quite enjoyed my swim - enough to return, anyway. I would have preferred it to be lighter; it felt very strange to be swimming in the dark and the lack of supervision meant it was pot luck when it came to being able to swim laps - I don’t usually worry about bumping into people doing handstands!
We left with mixed feelings then. I don’t think we’d countenance the idea of staying here without going out, especially if the hotel was as full as we experienced (and we read that it runs at 90% occupancy year round). But knowing what we do now and making careful choices as far as restaurants are concerned, it’s a great base to stay - at a price. The staff were wonderful, every one of them and in that respect, the five stars are well deserved. Can we just come here when there’s no one else staying here though, please?
