Rowan Brae Historic Guesthouse

The property is beautiful and the room is spacious with a bit more furniture than required. We had to move some pieces of furniture to make space to move around and open our luggage. The kitchen is self-serve breakfast with limited time till 10 am. This was a surprise. It would have been nice if there were eggs for cooking hot BF. But the reception is pretty and had awesome cakes for us to have at will all the time. Missing them even now. The bath had a heater, which was a blessing.

The place is part of a family bungalow. This wasn't mentioned on the website. It is an outhouse. There is no one at the reception when you arrive. We had to call the owners to help us locate the entrance to our room. We were lost when we reached the property. The couch in our room was old and uncomfortable. The windows overlooked a fence and had no view.

Very comfortable room and exceptionally comfy bed and pillows. The communal kitchen and dining area is cosy and the self serve breakfast, snacks area is very well stocked. Instructions for accessing the room on arrival were clear, and we loved the heritage style of the room. The airconditioning / wall heater both worked well to keep the room warm on a cold night. We loved it all really.

Nothing to report that we didn’t like.

Beautiful house and garden

No personal contact with host.

I would rate this property as just okay. Great if you want to pack some boiled egg sandwiches and apples for lunch as breakfast was available all day.

I was expecting access to the beautiful grounds shown in the main photo but this is apparently not part of the accomodation so it was misleading on that front. In fact, we entered through a back door accessed through a lane rather than through the grand entrance shown on the advertising. The room was the smallest they had and admittedly as it was a long weekend and the only room left, but also a significant birthday for me so kind of disappointing. The pokey room was clearly not reflected in the price which was excessive for what we got. The mattress was too soft and the small room became quite stuffy and uncomfortable to stay in for too long. The bathroom was cramped and the dining room was tiny and uninviting, not somewhere to linger over a coffee. The breakfast was basic (boiled eggs, toast, cereal...). Other guests who praised this accomodation must have stayed in the bigger rooms and sat on beautiful balconies overlooking greenery, but not us. I don't like leaving negative reviews but I feel like I was duped by the beautiful photos in the advertising and would have preferred to pay less and stay in a motel.