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-   -   Hogmanay in Scotland (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/hogmanay-in-scotland-367747/)

wombat Jan 10th, 2004 01:02 PM

Hogmanay in Scotland
 
It is my husbands 50th birthday on 27 December and we would dearly love to stay in a castle in scotland for hogmanay with our adult children to celebrate. Does anyone have any suggestions? We have only been to edinburgh for a short break before, but would like to go somewhere else this time, hopefully where there is the most chance of snow. If we can find a castle that is near to a town then many more of the family would want to come and stay in various priced accommodation as we want to splash out on the hotel but not everyone can. I
know this is a tall order - but... can anyone help? Thanks.

FromIreland Jan 10th, 2004 01:09 PM

I have stayed in the Gleneagles hotel.. smashing hotel.. high rates.. There's a nice castle hotel on Loch Lomond ..
Edinburgh is always worth a shot, but snow may not be available.. but they have great celebrations at New Year.

Scotland of course gets snow in winter, but the nearer to the North you go the better chance you have.

Best bet is to surf the British Tourist Board site (www.visitbritain.com) and see what accomodation takes your fancy.. then look up tripadvisor.com to see what other people think of your choices having stayed there !.

Good Luck

wombat Jan 10th, 2004 02:30 PM

We were hoping to go a bit further north than loch lomand but don't know scotland at all. I think an atmospheric hotel is probably more important than location as we are unlikely to be able to do much sightseeing in a few days in the winter. I shall have a look at gleneagles though. Thank you.

KS452 Jan 10th, 2004 03:32 PM

A suggestion: Acquire the holiday accommodation brochure from The National Trust for Scotland. I'm looking at last year's (2003) and see several gorgeous places that may be of interest to you. The Trust owns many properties, several having self-catering apartments or cottages that can be rented - even in the winter. Castle Fraser, Fyvie Castle, Haddo House, Brodie Castle and Culzean Castle are NTS properties with rental flats/cottages available in the winter season.

www.nts.org.uk
bookings (from US) 011-44-131-243-9331


sheila Jan 11th, 2004 02:27 AM

There area number of agents who rent castles; staffed or unstaffed. Did you have something like this in mond?

If so, I can give you the web links.

If it's a castle hotel you are looking at, I would have thought the most likely for snow ones are Castle Stuart, the one at Tulloch Castle at Dingwall, or Inverlochy at Fort William.

If you are looking for a good country house experience, then the following might work for you:-

Pittodrie House
Kildrummy Castle Hotel
Muckrach Lodge
Kilcamb Lodge
Loch Torridon
There's another one at Torridon, the name of which is escaping me.
Kinloch House

There are dozens of others, but for snow, think high- Cairngorms, Torridon, etc.


wombat Jan 11th, 2004 06:05 AM

Shirley,
thanks for your posting. I think perhaps a rented castle would be the answer. The difficulty is trying to find something that suits everyone at a price they can afford. We like a bit of luxury but with history and as its my hubbies birthday thats fine but it is unfair to expect others to pay out a lot of money. There could be fourteen or so of us if we can hit on the right combination. I would be grateful for any links for rented castles if you know them. Thanks for your time and help.

sheila Jan 11th, 2004 06:55 AM

On the assumption that I am "Shirley" can you give me a budget? And do you want staff or will you do self catering?

sheila Jan 11th, 2004 06:55 AM

ooops. Missed out the smiley:)

wombat Jan 11th, 2004 07:47 AM

Sorry Sheila. I think the max that we can go to is £4,000 for three nights for fourteen people over hogmanay as people still have cost of getting there from london. Do you think that would get us catered or only s-catering? I've noticed your name appearing several times on fodors - you seem to really know scotland! Thanks

sheila Jan 11th, 2004 09:31 AM

Wombat

have a look at this.

http://www.lhhscotland.com/House128.asp.

It's cheaper than your £4k and within reasonable distance of an airport which you can get to by Easyjet; and you could hire in help

http://www.lhhscotland.com/index.html

The main site has a full listing. Other sites include

http://www.scottscastles.com/
http://www.sportingestates.com/

and

http://www.cottages-and-castles.co.uk/

But GET A MOVE ON. Hogmanay is nearly fully booked already.

please feel free to come back if you need more help from me.

janis Jan 11th, 2004 09:39 AM

Lickleyhead that sheila links you to is a wonderful place - very similar in appearance to the nearby Craigevar which is one of the jewels of the NTS. But as she says - make a decision and book ASAP. These sorts of places book up months (sometimes years) ahead for New Years week.

sheila Jan 11th, 2004 12:49 PM

Since I posted it's been updated to "Provisionally booked". Strong urgings to get on with it.


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