Barony Hotel Peebles a Mecure Hotel
As you wind up the driveway to The Barony Castle hotel in Peebles passing the Alpacas in the fields on the way up, you come across the castle around a bend in the road, with its white towers bursting into the sky, you may feel like you had arrived at fairy land or some lost Alice in wonderland backdrop. The turrets standing on the white towers show a brilliance of architecture as does the medieval looking wrought iron work on the windows and surrounding gates . As you park outside the Barony castle hotel, the next thing that strikes you almost with a foreboding message is the wording above the door. ” Prepare to Meet Thy God”
I guess we should have known then, that our stay was not going to be the best, or that we where going to be enlightened by something or someone ha ha.
The receptionist was very friendly and helpful so we put our trust in that, we were going to have a good stay. We checked in and then took the lift to the 3rd floor which seemed to think it was doing a high-rise jaunt as it took, what one would consider an awful long time to make its way up. We got to our room which wasn’t bad and the bed seemed very comfortable and we did have 2 very good nights sleep due to how comfortable both the bed and pillows were.
As the Barony hotel Peebles is quite far from any town or other restaurant we decided to eat at the hotel. We were told that we could only reserve a table up to 7.30 pm which we thought was very early but we really didn’t have any other choice. We changed and went to dinner at the respective time of 7.30 pm and were put into the corner of The Blu Dug restaurant, as it appeared there was a coach group in and they took most of the other part of the restaurant. We ordered our food and to be honest it was very disappointing, my starter was very dry and I had ordered pasta which was swimming in oil and not pesto sauce as had been described on the menu. We got the feeling that the Barony hotel Peebles was more suited or should I say catered more, for groups and weddings than for individuals wanting a special dinning and hotel stay experience. On our second night we dined again but in the bar area, again I ordered pasta and this was superb, I guess there must have been one chef for fine dining and one for the bar area, I know which one we would choose !!
The receptionist explained to us that there was a famous landmark know as the polish map of Scotland in the Barony hotel grounds, so we decided to investigate and took a walk to its location, we went over the bridge, which was over the river and was lovely and then came across the Map (under restoration) I think in its time of development it would have been spectacular, however it is more something that could be appreciated by air due to its size and from the ground it didn’t seem that impressive. It was obviously made with great feeling and heart due to the Polish having been based there during the war. So just for that fact you would have to be awed by it.
We did use the swimming pool at the Barony hotel Peebles but it was a little cold and the spa was part of the pool so the water was the same temperature. I am not sure we would stay at the Barony castle hotel again but it was great for a good night sleep, if you are only looking for a bed for the night. So I guess this is a hotel rant and not a Rave, which is sad because the look of the hotel screams Alice in wonderland but was more ” prepare to Meet thy God” If you would like some more information on the Scotish borders area please click the link