Douneside House

Hidden Gem. I don't like to use the phrase but it works here. In my ignorance I'd not heard of Douneside but what a fantastic hotel. So happy with our stay. Lovely building, magnificent gardens, very nice bar, great selection of wines and whiskies, wonderful menu of beautiful food, great colleagues working with hotel guests - so helpful. At one apparently high end NE hotel we arrived and asked for a scone - nope. So poor. Whereas here at Douneside we had complimentary scones with jam and cream and tea. Fantastic. Can't fault the hotel. Many thanks.

This was our second visit to Douneside in May rather than winter and the beauty of the gardens at this time is uplifting, the huge infinity lawn, the naturalistic colourful planting following the burn and the quiet flowerfilled garden beside the conservatory.Our classic room had been tastefully refurbished in biscuity neutrals with interesting pictures and the bathroom had been modernised. It is always interesting to browse the lovingly preserved memorabilia of the MacRobert family and it should be remembered that hotel profits go to their charitable trust. The staff are mostly young, friendly and helpful and the food at dinner continues to be inventive , tasty and beautifully presented. Breakfast is generous and varied; cereals,homemade granola, stewed fruit,smoothies, juice, full scottish or eggs benedict, toast, croissants.It lasts one the whole day! Recommended for a special treat, if only for one night.

Arrived for a midweek break in March. Lovely entranceway and decor in main building and restaurants and the girl on reception was welcoming and lovely as were almost all staff. Stayed in casa 23: immaculate with lovely log fire, well stocked with logs, has a small bedroom and note the shower is really small. Parking excellent. 4 options on the dinner menu with one daily specialboth nights. The pheasant and pork belly were very difficult to cut but were tasty plates of food. Desserts were average and one in particular i did not like even though I usually love those ingredients. Breakfasts were the not what we expected. Service good on first day, however on the 2nd day was poor. The poorest and most unappetising continental 'buffet' I've ever seen. I pointed out to the waiter the sliced cheese and processed cheese that were curled up and dried at the edges. The waiter was somewhat huffy about that Nd we felt somewhat awkward. There were a couple of unappetising cereals and plain old apples and oranges with mini croissant. Nothing there that I would find a nice treat to eat in a hotel. I tried the eggs benedict...tasteless. Service quite slow eg you will finish a pot of lukewarm tea or weak coffee, the toast arrived 15 minutes later. No offer of fresh coffee or tea. The 2nd day we had to physically go twice looking for a waiter to get sugar. I ordered some egg, tomatoe and acone for breakfast. My pet hate is half raw cold egg running onto my plate and porage with salt in (which wasnt in it the day before). Then the staff seemed to disappear for a while and the breakfast diners eventually saw themselves out. Would be a lovely hotel to visit if they improved the breakfast food in particular. We did mention these comments on checkout. We still cannot find anywhere like for like who can beat the all round service, food, accommodation, staff and grounds at Dumfries House.