Fascadale

Amazing location — the silence almost hurts your ears when you're used to an urban environment. The house offers a surprising level of comfort considering how remote it is: spacious rooms, a large kitchen, a lovely garden and simply amazing views. There’s also an almost private beach, shared only by the three houses. At high tide it’s a large pebble beach, but when the tide goes out it turns into a beautiful white-sand beach. There are lots of beautiful places to explore nearby, and one of the highlights of our stay was seeing dolphins from the garden.

A few more basic supplies would have been appreciated — salt, pepper, sugar and perhaps some tea or coffee. We stayed for eight nights and there was only one toilet roll per bathroom, which isn’t really enough given that the nearest proper supermarket is around two hours away. We were also surprised that gardeners entered the garden to carry out routine maintenance during our stay, without any prior notice. Having booked the entire property for eight nights, we expected to be able to enjoy the house and its outdoor space without routine maintenance taking place during our stay. We feel this type of work would be better scheduled between guests or, if that isn’t possible, communicated and agreed in advance. We were also asked on departure to strip the beds and leave the windows open for ventilation. Considering we paid around £2,300 for an eight-night stay, we felt that these were tasks that would normally form part of preparing and cleaning the property between guests rather than something guests should be expected to do. Finally, the house itself could benefit from a little updating. Nothing major, but some small renovations and a few more Scottish or local decorative touches would give it more character and make the interior feel as special as the location.