We planned to have Christmas in Scotland this year, as Rasmus had only been to Glasgow on business trips, and since I studied there and am technically half Scottish, I wanted to introduce him to this amazing country.
Well we had ten days, and six of them were scheduled to be spent at my Grandpa’s home with family. So I had four days to give him an adequate taster…
So we did a day in Edinburgh:
A day in Glasgow.
And then two days at the incredible Mhor Hotel in the Trossachs National Park:
Um, people. This was the view of the loch we were treated to do each day…
Not that we normally stay at “luxury boutique hotels” but some friends had kindly let us housesit their flat in Glasgow for two nights which saved us getting a hotel there and we found a winter midweek deal at the Mhor hotel so decided it was worth it.
And ohmygoodness was it worth it.
Despite booking the smallest room in the hotel, we had such an amazing stay. Our room looked out over the snowy mountain behind the hotel, where the winter sun would shine every morning. The bathroom was wonderful, they left us fresh home-made biscuits on the tray with our tea and (real) coffee each day, and there were snuggly towelling robes in the cupboard.
Downstairs there was a small lounge with a wood stove, seemingly permanently fired up, and deep comfy sofas where we spent quite a few hours reading or writing to friends. Every now and then one of the wonderfully friendly staff would come in to check the fire, top up our wine glasses and check we were happy. Oh we were.
And then the dinner. Ohmygoodness the dinner. Our winter deal was to get the second night accommodation free if we booked bed-breakfast and dinner. Tom Lewis is the chef-owner and his menus were fantastic. We had a five course meal each day, with about two thirds of the menu changing the second day. They grow/farm/bake/locally source most of the ingredients and it all tasted amazing.
The snow was getting deep already by then so we didn’t stay out too long each day, but we did manage a drive around Loch Lomond, and a visit to Rob Roy’s grave in Balquhidder at the opposite end of Loch Voil from Mhor Hotel. We even braved the snowy track behind the small kirk to climb high enough for a view down the glen.
It was a really lovely five days and I would highly highly recommend the Mhor Hotel to anyone who asks!
p.s. thanks to Uncle Neil who first introduced me to Mhor but probably doesn’t realise it. He visited their library bakery on a cycling trip that passed through Balquhidder and posted on his blog about it… I followed the link and then promptly bookmarked the page for future possibilities… 🙂
