The Old Inn

“Rescued a cold wet stray”

Following Storm Amy the hotel i was staying at had closed because it had no power and water. At two hours' notice, the team from The Old Inn sorted me out with a lovely double room, a warm welcome and an excellent meal. As I was sitting by the fire in the bar after the dinner enjoying one of thei… more

Following Storm Amy the hotel i was staying at had closed because it had no power and water. At two hours' notice, the team from The Old Inn sorted me out with a lovely double room, a warm welcome and an excellent meal. As I was sitting by the fire in the bar after the dinner enjoying one of their many whiskies I could not have been more grateful with the way that a really difficult day had ended.

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“Beautiful highland welcome.”

Lovely comfortable room, clean and quiet. Great bar. Beautiful area with access to numerous walks of different levels of difficulty but all with fantastic views.

“Warm wine, below average food, lack of presence by staff”

I stayed at The Old Inn several years ago on a FAM trip when I worked in tourism, and I'd wanted to get my husband to the area for years. I was happy to see not only did the hotel have availability, but that they were dog friendly because we travel with our dog. We paid for the room in advance and … more

I stayed at The Old Inn several years ago on a FAM trip when I worked in tourism, and I'd wanted to get my husband to the area for years. I was happy to see not only did the hotel have availability, but that they were dog friendly because we travel with our dog. We paid for the room in advance and everything was sorted. When we arrived, we checked in - the room was clean, everything was fresh, and there was even a dog bed & bowl for our dog. Great start! We booked dinner in the hotel because Gairloch is small and we didn't want to venture out. They put us in a corner so the dog would have plenty of room, which I thought was a lovely touch. I ordered sauvignon blanc and my husband ordered merlot. My wine was room temperature, almost warm. The recommended temperature for sauvignon blanc is around 7C. There was no condensation on the glass and it was as warm as my husband's red. He took it back to the bar (I was sitting with the dog) and the staff member pulled the bottle from the fridge and handed it to him. It was as warm as the glass was (and he noticed the temperature on the refrigerator was 15C!). It was as if they had just put the bottle in the fridge right before dinner service. After a bit of toing and froing, I ended up asking for a cider because I didn't want to spoil the evening. I'd ordered the venison burger. I figured since there are several venison dishes on the menu, they'd be able to get that right. I asked for it to be cooked 'medium' (and it was written on our receipt at the end of the night, so I'm assuming the kitchen got that information). It was cooked well done and was almost too tough to eat. I was hungry and had already complained about the wine, so decided to leave it. My husband ordered a curry dish and he enjoyed his, so at least that was good. No one checked on us until after dinner, which didn't give me any opportunity to discuss the meal. When we got the bill, I noticed that my wine was still on the bill but my husband's second glass of red wasn't, so we just ignored that and paid. We got a bit hot in the room overnight, but the day had been unseasonably warm, so once we opened a window, we slept fine. The bed was a bit hard for me, but that's a personal preference and they can't please everybody. Breakfast was a pre-order and we turned our order in the night before. I had asked for scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, a potato scone, and a croissant. My husband ordered bacon, sausage, potato scone, and beans. The cold items weren't set up very well - spread all over the breakfast room. They didn't have the juices labelled and I ended up with apple juice instead of orange juice. When the hot items were delivered, my eggs weren't edible at all. I took a couple of bites and just left the rest, because even with salt, there was absolutely no flavour and they were very dry. The potato scone (for both of us) wasn't cooked well, and my husband's beans were cold. The croissant was warm and delightful, though, so I really enjoyed eating that. Although the hotel is dog friendly, I would recommend adding some bins around the property outside to leave ... unmentionables from the pooches. We noticed only a single small bin tucked away in the front which we didn't see until we were leaving. We had been walking across the car park to put the bags in a skip. Everything else for dogs was spot on and I would recommend this to my doggie friends (with a gentle warning for the food and lack of receptacles for poo bags). After breakfast, we packed everything up and left the room, travelled downstairs, to a sign that said that we were to leave our room keys in a blue basket on the reception desk but no one greeted us as we were leaving. It felt very much like, 'we've had your money, now get out.' I can't give this place as high of a review as I'd like to have given it - I really had enjoyed my trip here years ago. I believe some retraining would be a good idea and also a check on those fridges in the bar to make sure they're working properly. There should be a way to check the temperature of the wine before it's served and if a customer asks for a burger to be cooked a certain way, the cook/chef should know how to do that. Customer service is slipping away from the tourism industry and I know part of the problem is money. The rate for the hotel was average for what's on offer, but I felt the price for dinner was a bit expensive for what we ended up with. We were very fortunate with the weather, which always puts a nicer spin on things. I don't know if we'll stay again and that's a shame, because their location is amazing and they have an incredible building with a host of history and interesting little features. If improvements were made, I would be willing to give it another go.

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“The Old Inn”

A quaint inn but tired and in need of updating. Although the food was good there is a limited menu and the same each night. The staff were very helpful and the bar was always busy