Tag: Ayr

Scotland 2026 Day 13 & 14. Slowly winding our way home…

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Day 13 leaving Oban heading to Ayr

Well! after the rigmarole of the previous night we were expecting to be greeted by the manager when we checked out…she had said several times that she would make amends to us on our check out…..umm…NO…. The receptionists knew nothing about the problems we had had…and what’s more the manager didn’t come on duty until 11.am….i was not in the mood to be messed about, so politely insisted that the manager was called….we were told she would be there in 10 minutes….20 minutes later she arrived…she knew of the flooding problem from the day before. She also seemed to know that we had been told that they were going to make amends ….I reminded her of this to which I was to,d “ yes we would like to make amends by offering you a free breakfast” ….as this point I laughed out loud, they could tell from our account we hadn’t had breakfast the day before, she was also aware that we had packed the car up, Dad was in the car and we were ready to leave… my next question was ..at what point was this empty gesture going to be offered to us ….after we’d left, or not at all I suspect….The manager said that they had no jurisdiction to refund us anything, permission would have to be sought from head office….i asked why this hadn’t already happened???? She did say that she did have the power to right off the cost of our evening meal the first night….she then went to do this. We said we expected to hear back from head office, with some further form of compensation for ruining our 2 days in Oban, by 5.30 pm Tuesday 26th May. We thought this was fair. If we didn’t hear back we would write to their head office with a formal complaint and as we had booked through booking.com we would give them a review which explains why no one should waste their money staying at this establishment…I am not prepared to let this drop….Muthu Queen advertises as 4 star, we payed almost £100 a night and for that we expected the facilities they advertise to work…other visitors shouldn’t have to go through what we went through…..as I write this it is 4.30 pm on Tuesday 26th May and as yet we haven’t heard anything….we will pursue this for the sake of others..

Off we went …the scenery was beautiful and we passed-bye some familiar sights…

We took the A85 up to north to Connel then East to Tyndrum before taking the A 82 to Crianlarich. The Best Western ar Crianlarich is a favourite of ours….We stopped for coffee and a loo break. The receptionist and the bartender were the same as 3 years ago when we stopped there..

We crossed the Firth of Clyde on the Erskine bridge and headed on the coast road through Port Glasgow, Greenock stopping at Wemyss Bay …..this is where the ferry goes to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute…the train station is next to the ferry port…it’s an intriguing station, several years ago when we were touring Dad had taken a photo of the inside of the station and had it made into a jigsaw for a present for us…We sat watching the ferry and ate or lunch.

On we went through Largs and on to Ayr….a little time was lost due to road works closing a section of road and us getting a bit lost until we picked up the A77 again….We found The Ayr’s race course easily enough. When there is no racing we like to stay at The Western House Hotel at Ayr Racecourse…..it’s a lovely hotel….superb staff, really nice spacious rooms …and guess what everything works in them….we were greeted like long lost friends, the porter/ doorman offered to help with our bags which we declined….but as we were getting the bags out a young man arrived for duty and helped us anyway…we later met him again in the restaurant …what a helpful chap he was….….the rooms were ground floor and opposite each other as requested….

We ate in their restaurant…a lovely roast with all the trimmings….what a pleasure…the waiters were charming, professional, friendly and full of fun…. What we can say is that the meal for the 3 of us was £30 cheaper than the average evening meal we had had at the Muthu Queen…our rooms were also cheaper in Ayr which really is a 4 star hotel.

Day 14 Ayr to Carlisle

We were sorry to say goodbye to The Western House….we had had a great nights sleep and loved the opulent luxury of a nice duvet, pillows, fluffy towels etc….packed up and back on the road we headed to Greggs for bacon butties and a treat of a sausage roll. We took these on to the promenade road and sat watching the sea and people walking their dogs while we tucked into our breakfast.

We once again headed south and slowly made our way to Carlisle….i had rented an apartment for the next 2 nights ….The Foreman’s residence is very close to the station and right next to The Carlisle Court of Justice.

Whilst we knew it was an upstairs apartment we didn’t realise that the second bedroom was up a second flight of steep steps and it was in the eves …to the extent even at my short height I had to bed over to get to my side of the bed….ummm not ideal but we’ll make do…the blurb on the place had also said on road parking or near bye car park…..ummm…. No on road outside the property it’s a no through road with double yellow lines and the court at the bottom…the road that this is off has 1 hour no return parking, the carpark which is an easy walk is £10 for 24 hours, which is fine…but I do wish that when people advertise their places that they didn’t paint a picture which isn’t totally realistic…..but it’s fine and fairly comfortable….i know I am pedantic about cleanliness and it doesn’t quite meet my high expectations….but it is probably better than our previous experiences at The Station Hotel !!!!!!!

Scotland 2026 – Day 11 – Inverness to Oban.

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Day 11- Inverness to Oban…. We were up and away from our AirB&B by 9.15. I must say we were very comfortable in our 2 Crown Circus Apartment. It was fairly expensive but we were very comfortable. Anyone thinking of staying here would not be disappointed. Claire the host is a delightful, helpful lady. The only thing you should be aware of is that the welcome pack is coffee beans, sachets of tea, coffee, sugar. There were dishwasher and washing machine tablets, kitchen roll, toilet rolls etc…..In all the other Airb&bs we’ve stayed in both in UK and in Europe we have always had a welcome gift with bread, milk, butter and a preserve….we’ve also had luxuries like eggs, cheese, apple juice, wine, bananas etc etc But here the extra gift other than the expected norm was coffee beans…we didn’t use these as we had brought our preferred coffee from home.

We headed towards Dores and Foyers along that side of Loch Ness to Fort Augustus…some of the road is one track with passing places. There are frequent parking places but only a few have views of the Loch….Nessie obviously had the day off probably due to the chilly wet weather!!!!! We did spy the tourist cruise out searching for her….we stopped to take a few pictures of Urquhart Castle…..We have a superb photo of this on our wall at home from the days John was heading up Barclaycards marketing and advertising…he had used his photographers picture to advertise the card in Scotland, it has a lovely pinky haze and has adorned our dining room wall for many years….so we always enjoy seeing the real thing when we are up in Inverness.

We had a very convenient loo stop at Fort Augustus before heading on to Spean Bridge where we stopped at the Commando Memorial.

The weather was really coming in and it was difficult to see the snow capped peaks of the Ben Nevis Range

We stopped in Fort William for a cup of coffee at the Railway Station so John could get a few pictures. Our trip continued on to Oban via The Loch Nell Arms Hotel, at Connel Ferry for a loo break ….what a delightful hotel with superb views and really nice staff….next time we pass this way we will definitely stay here…John was taking pictures ( which due to the poor internet where we are at present we can’t download) and a couple asked if he was staying, when he replied “ not this time” they replied it was a shame as it was the very best hotel in the area….looking forward to staying there in the future.

We nipped up to the station for John to get a photo….he was delighted it was a train with a bike carriage which he had failed to photograph the last time we came up to Scotland. So with a smiling husband we arrived in Oban and found our hotel – The Muthu Queen…right on the promenade front…a pity our rooms were looking at the back of the front of the hotel ….

If I said this hotel was a real live Fawlty Towers…..those of you who remember the TV series of the 1970’s or the more recent West End award winning stage show ….you will know that our experience has been highly problematic and thankfully due to our good sense of humour, highly amusing…..

To start with Dads room was 3 floors below ours….”NO” we had requested through booking.com rooms near if not next to each other and on the lowest floor possible. We knew that we had to walk up the first set of stairs but the lift which takes you the rest of the way was out of order…so eventually the lovely receptionists changed our room to the other end of the first floor to dads….then Dad opened his window and it wouldn’t close…the other lovely receptionist came and closed it using something pressed into the mechanisation so he didn’t trap his fingers, then our curtains didn’t close,,,John eventually managed to unhook them enough to pull them along but no chance of reopening them, our TV had no signal then sprang to life with constant interrupted signal, and the bathroom floor flooded when you had a shower….!!!! At supper the soup sounded appetising so we selected it only to be told it was a different soup which we didn’t fancy…our main course was brought before our starter plates were removed, so there was no where to put the main course plates ….we were asked if we wanted a dessert while we were still eating our mains…..and so it continued….the staff were so lovely…but nothing really worked…and the service was dubious……more about that tomorrow.