Undiscovered Scotland

 

The Taychreggan Hotel can be found some seven miles south of Taynuilt on the single track B845, which after passing through the small village of Kilchrenan simply concludes in a turning circle in front of the hotel on the west shore of Loch Awe. The hotel stands in private well kept gardens and offers unusually good views along and across Loch Awe. You can read our dining review for Taychreggan here.

The hotel started life in the 1600s as a drovers' inn on a promontory jutting into Loch Awe. Being the narrowest point of a very long north-south aligned loch, herds of Highland cattle were driven here from western Argyll before crossing the loch en route to Lowland markets. The drovers would cross using a ferry whose successor was still shown as operating on the 1900 Ordnance Survey maps displayed in the hotel.

The setting is idyllic, with gardens that go down to the loch to the front and one side of the hotel. The ferry and the cattle are both long gone, and today the only people who come to Taychreggan are those who wish to be here. This adds to a sense of tranquility and a silence that, certainly on a day with little wind, is both profound and extremely hard to find in this day and age.

The hotel has a complex, roughly "J" shaped floorplan resulting from its incremental growth, but you soon find your way around. Public areas include a comfortable and spacious guest lounge enjoying superb views over the lawns to the loch, with a fire at one end to warm you on cold evenings; a second smaller lounge, with the same views; a snooker room with a full size antique table; a lounge bar; the dining room, which makes the most of the views down Loch Awe with its full length arched windows; and the Orangerie, sited in what was previously the courtyard in the centre of the "J".

There are eighteen en-suite guest bedrooms at the Taychreggan Hotel. Half of these are located on the first floor of the "new" wing, which is the wing occupied at ground floor level by the dining room. The remaining rooms are in the older part of the hotel, and occupy the upper floor of the south-west and south-east ranges.

The rooms come in a variety of styles. The master suite is located in the new wing and offers a sitting room and bedroom and a bathroom with spa bath. There are eight junior suites, four in the new wing and four in the older part of the hotel. Seven of them enjoy magnificent loch views and three of the junior suites in the older part of the hotel have four poster beds. There are a total of five superior rooms, two of which have loch views, and there are four standard rooms, which are located in the new wing and overlook the rear of the hotel and the car park. All the rooms tend to be on the spacious side and all are highly appointed, beautifully furnished and well equipped. The en-suite bathrooms are especially spacious: all have baths and many, additionally, have a walk in shower. We've heard Taychreggan described as "a four star hotel with five star bathrooms", and that is pretty accurate.

The hotel's private meeting room can seat up to 25 and the hotel can provide the full range of equipment necessary to ensuring a successful meeting or conference. Taychreggan's location and facilities make it a very attractive venue for a get-away-from-it-all wedding where the whole hotel can be taken over on an exclusive use basis. Taychreggan is licensed for civil or religious ceremonies either within the hotel itself or in the gardens overlooking the loch.

Disabled access is reasonable to the ground floor of the hotel and in the public areas, and there is disabled toilet provision on the ground floor. Level access is possible to the upper floor of part of the hotel from the car park at the rear, but there are no specially adapted rooms.

From the moment you arrive at the Taychreggan Hotel you know you have discovered somewhere very special. The location is magnificent, and at the risk of repetition, the public rooms, the guest rooms and the quality of the dining are all superb. Service is personal and friendly, while being low key and unobtrusive. The quality of the housekeeping throughout the hotel is outstanding. You can read our dining review for Taychreggan here.