South Lodge - Brodie Castle, Forres

We had already stayed in South Lodge in February 2020 and we were happy to book again based on our experience. The only problem then was the inadequate heating in the kitchen. The only source of heat, when not cooking, being the smallest possible storage heater. But we took our own remedy with us and that problem was overcome. The bedding and towels were all clean and in good condition. However when we came to making a cup of tea we found the only cups available were ridiculously small - not much bigger than an espresso coffee cup. So we had to go out and buy mugs. Furthermore dishes and glasses had been put away dirty and everything had to be washed before we could use it. You may blame the previous occupants for this but we paid for a clean cottage and it was the property manager’s responsibility to ensure we got this. The lounge was as cold the grave. We discovered that the storage element of the heater was not working so, starting from cold, it would take an hour to raise the temperature to a reasonable level by using both the convector heater and by lighting the stove with our firewood. When we arrived the woodburning stove was full of a failed lighting attempt, which had to be emptied, and the fireplace was dirty - the cleaner had not touched it. Since our previous visit a numpty had fitted a replacement wooden toilet seat and lid (numpty in this context is defined as somebody who is so stupid or so cynical that they did not ensure that the toilet lid and seat would stay up when raised). The seat would not stay up under any circumstances and the lid would only stay up after some persuasion, balanced on a knife edge, and usually would hit you in the back when you sat on the seat. It was liable to crash down at any time - men beware. Furthermore I have always thought that a toilet seat should be white in colour so that one can see if it is clean. The brown wooden toilet seat featured what I presumed was an interesting wood grain but following further investigation I found that this pattern was in fact faeces left by a previous occupant. This proves that nobody had cleaned that toilet seat before we arrived. Disgusting. On the Saturday morning of our departure, following my clearing and emptying the stove, I thought the carpet looked a bit grubby so I decided to give it a quick vacuum. It was then I discovered that the grubbiness was in fact black animal hair (not ours) but the vacuum cleaner was so jam-packed with dirt that it would not lift anything. It just pushed the hair around. I didn't have time to see if there were any replacement vacuum bags - the thing was useless. The money that we paid the agent for cleaning this property before we arrived had been pocketed by an organisation or an individual without that service being carried out. There is a 5-letter word for this and it begins with a “t”. Our memory of South Lodge from 2020 was of a slightly dilapidated but clean cottage, otherwise we would not have returned. However add to that dirt and you end up with squalor which we would not have at any price.

If you ask people to arrive after 5pm in December in Scotland at least light the property so that you can see it. It is pitch dark. On entering the overriding smell was damp.. Once we had unpacked we went into the kitchen. The rear kitchen wall was wet and had obviously been wiped down to remove mold, there was a black patch at the bottom of the wall(I have pictures). Whilst the kitchen was well equipped it was totally under heated. It was impossible to use to eat as was so cold,such we ate in the lounge, with trays on our knees. As the use of candles was prohibited the only way of masking the smell of damp in the lounge was to use the woodburner. There was a dehumidifier running when we arrived and a note instructing us to leave it running on our departure. The Cottage was advertised as having a chargepoint for an EV. We even double checked with the agents. It is very misleading as the charge point noted is in the carpark of Brodie Castle-- A mile away, who in their right minds will leave their car a mile from home especially in the foul weather we had. The chargepoint was also supplied by Charge Place Scotland and you had to have their app .. After installing the app, calling CPS support line the charger ran at 0.5kw and would have taken 138 hours to charge the car... This was an absolute nightmare as we expected to charge at will at the cottage. Local infrastructure did not support charging as local CPS chargepoints did not support their app or by their webpage to pay.. The cost of the cottage was high and I do not think it should be used during winter. More galling was getting an email from the agents advising that the rates had been reduced, when we enquired they would not honour the reduction as we had already booked. The only plus was that we were able to take our hound.

A great location and a very pretty house, but............... The house itself is very pretty and in a lovely location, with a great enclosed garden for dogs. There are plenty of shops (Tesco/Sainsbury/Lidl) and amenities within a 15 minute drive, so it is a good location for being both quiet and tranquil yet convenient. Walking from this location is really good, with woodlands and rivers. We did have a lovely holiday, it was just spoilt a little due to the below. Mid holiday service clean was supposed to happen on the middle Saturday. We stripped the beds and collected all of the towels together to make it easier for whoever was going to do this, and then went out for the day. Arrived home at 11.30pm, the service clean had not happened, we had to put all the bed linen back on late at night. Following morning, I left a message for the estate office, as per the instructions in the accommodation welcome book. We walked over to the castle, to which South Lodge belongs, but there was nobody about to ask, it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We did not hear from anyone for the the entire rest of the stay, I rang again several times and only got the answerphone. The accommodation welcome book, said that there was also spare bedding for all of the beds, so I tried to make the beds up again with the spare bedding, but there weren't enough pillow cases and no double duvet or sheet. In addition there were no spare towels. I had to wash and dry all of the bedding and towels myself, which is not easy considering there is no tumble dryer and very limited drying capacity on the outside line and the airer. It took a whole day of the holiday to do the washing and move everything around to try to get it dry, which is quite ridiculous considering how much we paid for the accommodation in the first place. I fully appreciate that in the current covid situation, things are difficult at times, I have no problem with changing the beds myself, but we should have been provided with clean bedding and towels half way through the holiday. 2. Quantity of plates/cups/glasses. I appreciate that the accommodation is for four people, but only providing 4 plates, 4 bowls (3 mugs & 2 cups and saucers) several sorts of glasses of which there were also only 4, is quite ridiculous. I understand that they may not wish to encourage people to entertain or have other people staying, but only having 4 of everything is just bonkers. 3. This property could definitely do with a washer/dryer, considering it is Scotland and it rains a lot. The house is old and clearly has some damp issues, it was fine in the summer but we still had to turn on the heating to get anything to dry. As the heating is primarily night storage heaters, you cannot put anything on them to dry either. The only viable radiator for drying anything was the towel radiator in the bathroom. The outdoor clothes lines, whilst situated at the back of the property to be aesthetically pleasing, remains in the shade all day even in August, so nothing really dries. 4. Broadband connection is intermittent and kept dropping out, despite standing next to the router.