I heard back from the owner and you are correct, it is not in a village, about 5 mins drive to a couple of villages. Certainly we can do the designated driver thing but being able to walk home from having a meal and drink at the local pub is more appealing if we plan on much eating out. But we are away all up for 10 weeks so will be doing a lot of our own cooking and not every place we stay needs to be in town. It is nice to mix things up a bit. B and B is good in town as you need to eat out for dinner. Janis, is the spot where the cottage is a convenient one for day tripping and seeing the things you Scotland experts would recommend, or is Callander a better option? We will visit Stirling and Loch Lomond etc - yet to look really closely at the details.

IMO Callander would be a better base for this sort of short visit. Or possibly Aberfoyle. You'd want to see places like Stirling, Doune, Inchmahome, loch katrine, Loch Lomond, Killin/falls of Dochart , maybe Drummond castle garden. Callander would be more central.

But the location of the cottage would be OK - just more driving to get places (except for Loch Lomond which is closer to the cottage)

Thanks Janis, this is very helpful and in the meantime I have found a cottage right in Callander and based on your feedback I will book this one. I will record all the above suggestions for day tripping in my travel diary. Can't wait til next year!