Atholl Palace

Nightmare at Atholl Palace Hotel

by TripAdvisor Member hardware

Fairy tale setting, have stayed many times, some rooms tired. Restaurant food excellent, restaurant manager James most attentive. This time we booked two suites for special family occasion one suite better than the other. Intruder entered both suites on second night, he returned next morning to confront my wife when she was alone. Hotel will not confirm that any changes have been made to correct the total lack of alarm or security on fire escapes to prevent intruders access to rooms. The hotel management did not make any effort to contact us after the nightmare weekend. Get the clients out end of story, basic human concern disappeared once we were out the door. The Hotel let us down.
One thing my family has learned, do not assume that when you lock the doors you are secure. Question the hotel about fire escape security.

Incredible Stay at The Atholl Palace

by TripAdvisor Member QlDude

We stayed for one night in July at the Atholl Palace. The front desk was extremely friendly, they even upgraded us to a Turret Room for no extra charge.
The room itself was beautiful, large, with a 4 post bed, views of three different sides from three different windows, absolutely amazing.
The rate includes a full breakfast in the morning, which was delicious. The grounds of the palace are also beautiful. You can use their pitch and putt golf course, tennis courts, putting greens, pool tables, game room, etc all for no charge. Parking was easy and free.

Overall, we LOVED the Atholl Palace and would love to return someday.

Atholl Palace Hotel - A Place I will Remember

by A TripAdvisor Member

I stayed at the hotel on the 19th of November for two nights with my partner. I was thoroughly impressed. We stayed in one of the two turret suites, the room itself was lovely and very clean, with an impressive elevated lounge at the top. The food was excellent and we enjoyed a relaxing night in the hotel bar, before going into Pitlochry on the second night. Although quiet at this time of year we had a great relaxing break. The staff were extremely helpful and friendly. I would definetly return to this hotel again in the future.

Anniversary Trip

by TripAdvisor Member Jahmin

We have just spent our 4th holiday at the Atholl Palace. We got married there in 2003, went back for our first anniversary last year and have just spent our second anniversary there.

Once again, we have had a fanastic, relaxing time. The sofas by the log fires provide a great place to chill out and read, the location is excellent for walking and the service is good, but not obtrusive.

We had a wonderful room, very large, with great views. My in-laws were with us and whilst their room was not as large as ours, the decor was still above average and the room was very comfortable.

The restaurant staff are very friendly, the standard of food seems to improve each time we visit and the breakfast buffet is still far too tempting!

Hopefully we will be back for our third anniversary!

Very Disappointing

by A TripAdvisor Member

Myself and my wife stayed at the Atholl Palace 18/19 February this year. I came away feeling we had been conned by their website publicity as this place is nothing like the luxury hotel it pretends to be. The outside is very impressive (Scots baronial style set in large grounds) but once inside the reality is different. Room was clean but basic (cold on arrival)and sound insulation was poor (our bed was against the same wall as our neighbours) The bathroom was freezing. The decor looked tired and the whole place gave the impression of having seen better days, with corners being cut to save costs. The bar was far too small, dirty and not staffed through the afternoons. Staff seemed harassed and overrun. Also this was the first time I have had to queue for 10 minutes to get into the breakfast room on a Sunday morning(the explanation - too many guests choosing to have breakfast after 9.30 am!)The one positive was the restaurant where we had a couple of nice evening meals. However overall this hotel does not give value for money and I would not recommend it to anyone. The hotel claimed to have been rated 4-star by Visit Scotland and I have contacted them to ask how they came to this assessment. There would have to be a huge improvement to reach true 4-star standard

Outrageously expensive, hugely disappointing

by A TripAdvisor Member

The hotel is such a disppointment, and vastly overrates itself in its advertising. Our room was tiny, cold and had no view. Once, we returned to our room to find a member of staff hauling away our clothes, with the explanation that he understood we were "changing rooms". We persuaded him that this was not so, and he shuffled off to return the clothes that had already been moved. We received no apology for this. An hour later, a different member of staff barged into the room without knocking, despite the "do not disturb sign" on the door, and said "oh, I thought you had moved". Still no apology when we phoned the front desk.

For the price of our tiny room, we stayed in a beach front cabana at the Hyatt in the Caribbean last year. The food at the Atholl Palace was sub-standard, and the service surly and unhelpful. The single four-person lift for a hotel of this size is a joke. It broke down while we were there, and we had to climb four flights of stairs. There is no assistance whatsoever with luggage. The hotel needs to be totally redecorated, and should hire new management.

it's got charm, sham about the staff

by TripAdvisor Member littlejaffa

like a previous poster i was in a tower suite in dec o4 and also found the entire hotel cold (it was snowing outside) . But - unlike them i found the food, cleanliness, and most staff wonderfull - even though it was snowing outside all log fires were blazing.
My only complaint, the dinning waiting staff. There didn't seem to be standard portion sizes, one breakfast a portion of potato scone counted as a single, another 3 seperate.
You can imagine a whole meal of this uncertainty means a huge breakfast when you wanted a small or visa versa - after a few mornings of mess - I specified exactly how many eggs, potato scones etc - and was presented with 1 cut into 3 parts.
This childish behavior & rudness seemed to stop at the dinning staff thankfull and was so bad it was funny - we laughed it of and appreciated the glasses left on tables in the main bar, its so quite it's great not to have staff buzzing round and it's easy to take your glass to the bar yourself or move to another table, fussing staff would spoilt the athmosphere.

Great location - Pity so few bothered to dress for dinner

by TripAdvisor Member ostberry

It seems no one dresses for dinner these days - If the hotel feels shorts , sandals and tracksuits are o/k to wear at dinner then we may as well have gone to Butlins and paid a lot less. On the morning we we had breakfast the boiler had broken down - so no tea or coffee - They never thought to put a kettle on - Expected better from a hotel of this quality. And the room --- located in one of the towers -- great view over the front of the hotel but really small. Next time in Pitlochry I will stay at The Fishers Hotel , Same size room third of the price

Lift Problems

by A TripAdvisor Member

Don't stay in this hotel if you can't get up and down the stairs. Luckily we could, but there is one lift for this huge hotel and it holds 4 people. The weekend we were there it stuck twice and we saw an old lady waiting up on the second floor for half an hour. She said this had happened the day before, too. Totally outrageous and the staff weren't worrying themselves to do much about it. There is no service lift either. A hotel this big has the room to build two new lifts at each end.
The desk staff are too casual about everything. The dining room staff are good. Breakfast buffet is great. Grounds are great. Bedrooms are okay but the old windows rattle and if anyone is talking in the corridors at night you can expect to be woken up. I was woken by very noisy staff chatting loudly as they dumped towels outside the rooms at 8.00 am prior to changing them. I guess they had to use the lift before any of us were up.

A couple of weeks adventuring with the Scots

by lewade

"From Hadrian's wall to the Island of Mull"

We started at Hadrian's Wall north of England's Lake country. First to Glascow, then on to Loch Lomond and Inverary. Then on to Oban, where we took a ferry to the Island of Mull. We stayed in Craignure, visited the nearby castles and then took another ferry to the nearby Isle of Iona.Toberymory ,on Mull, has brightly painted houses and storefronts. Mull and Iona are part of the Hebrides, which offer much natural beauty and historical attractions.

"From Inverness to Pitlochry"

Leaving Mull, we traveled through the Scottish Highlands, visiting Ben Nevis, Inverness an Loch Lomond on our way to the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry.
Of course we saw the Loch Ness Monster (or at least his statue in a pond).
An finally we hiked in the highlands and even played golf at Pitlochry.
We actually bought a bottle during our visit to Scotland's smallest distillery in Edradour.

"St. Andrews and Edinburgh"

We finished off the trip by visiting many castles and historical sites on the way to and in St. Andrews and, finally, Edinburgh.

A wonderful trip, beautiful country, wonderful people. (It's just that they believe they should regain their independence.)

And I've never seen so many sheep!