ballindalloch castle

We are pleased to hear that you enjoyed your visit to the Castle, and would like to thank you very much for taking the trouble to post a review.

Thank you so much for your kind remarks. We're delighted to know that you enjoyed your day out at the Castle, and would like to thank you for taking the time to let us know.

Thank you for taking the time to write a review on your visit to Ballindalloch Castle. For the benefit of future Speyside Way users, we should point out that access via the private Porter's Lodge entry is not always available, and that entering through the main gate only entails another half mile or so walk along the main road. We are very pleased to hear that you enjoyed both the Castle and surrounding gardens, and hope that you will visit us again some day.

Many thanks, Robin S, for submitting a review of your visit to the Castle; we are pleased to know that you enjoyed the experience, particularly our loos, of which we are very proud! Regarding payments, the tearoom (a separate business) is unfortunately not able to take card payments at this time owing to line supply problems, but card payments can be taken on admission at the gate, and in the gift shop.

Whilst we were pleased to receive your comments on the Castle and our loos (which have this year been short-listed for a 'Best Loos' award!), we are disappointed that you were less happy with our policy for our canine friends. We do ask visitors to confine doggy visitors to the area provided for their convenience for several reasons, one of the most important being the abundance of sensitive wildlife in the Castle grounds. Although perhaps not always evident, the gardens are home, in season, to oyster-catchers, pheasants and other ground-nesting birds, as well as to roe deer and a large population of red squirrels. Dogs can be exercised off-lead in two acres of field (we provide bins for any little accidents) and there is a designated 'hot dog' parking area in the shade of huge trees for sunny weather. Thank you again for your feedback; it is always valuable, and it helps us to improve upon our visitors' experience.

Thank you for your review; visitors' comments are always welcome. We are very pleased that you enjoyed your visit to Ballindalloch Castle, and hope that we can look forward to seeing you again.

Delighted to hear that you enjoyed your visit to Ballindalloch Castle, and your bacon roll! We love them too, and can't wait until we open again next Easter! Haste ye back.

Thank you for your kind remarks; we're very pleased to know that you enjoyed your visit to Ballindalloch Castle.

Thank you for taking the time to rate your visit to Ballindalloch Castle. It's always good to receive a review, and we're very pleased to hear that you enjoyed the Castle and surroundings.

Thank you very much for taking the time to let us know that you enjoyed your visit to the Castle; we hope that you'll be able to come back again when the sun is shining to enjoy the gardens as well!

Thank you for your comments; we're delighted to hear that you enjoyed your visit to the Castle.

We apologise for this tardy response to your report. We have been in a process to establish our bona fides with TripAdvisor in order to get access to respond online.With regard to your comments on car parking, you visited shortly after severe flooding in the area, which meant that we had to take emergency action to cordon off parts of the car park so that vehicles did not become bogged down. We will be looking at the car parking during the winter – it is not as clear a layout as it should be, particularly since in wet weather there is a tendency for water to lie around in some spots.Our dog-walking area is spacious, and dogs are welcome to stretch their legs there, off lead. We do understand, though, that not everyone likes dogs as much as we do – some visitors are nervous around them, even if they are on leads; children particularly can be over-confident with our canine friends; and we also have a mind to sensitive wildlife, such as ground-nesting birds (especially through the early summer) and our resident red squirrel population - so we ask, for everyone’s comfort, that dogs are restricted to their own special area. A shaded ‘hot dog’ parking area is available too, for sunny days.We provide a good variety of outdoor equipment for our younger visitors and maintain it conscientiously, but the ride-on toys are well-used (not always by the small persons for whom they are intended!) and breakdowns are inevitable from time to time. The go-karts are reasonably expensive pieces of equipment to keep in reserve but we did have three replacement ones on order at the time of your visit and they were rolled out as soon as they arrived.Regarding your comment that ‘staff were abrupt’ with your children, it is difficult without the facts to respond other than that we are disappointed if you feel that we fell short of our normal high standard of customer interaction and satisfaction. Children are as important to us as our adult guests, and we provide as many entertainments as we can to make their visit enjoyable. We would therefore appreciate your taking the time to contact Fenella, either by telephone on 01807 500205 or by e-mail at fenella@ballindallochcastle.co.uk, so that we can understand more of what happened and learn from it.Finally, we would like to thank you for commenting on your experience. Whilst your review is not necessarily what we would like to read, it is nonetheless valuable and will help us to improve on what most visitors report to be a very enjoyable experience.

Chris, thank you for taking the time to comment on your recent visit to Ballindalloch - we apologise for our late response, but we have only recently established administrative access to enable us to reply to comments. We appreciate that you were disappointed at not being able to use our tearoom over the lunchtime period because of a prior coach party booking; you ought to have been told of the situation on entry, and advised that the tearoom staff can provide a takeaway service until shortly before the arrival of the coach, when they have to prepare to serve a buffet meal. Alternatively, we are more than happy for visitors to leave the grounds to eat elsewhere, returning later to continue their visit. This is a very difficult situation for us to manage; the tour company concerned visits on most Sundays throughout the season but we receive actual confirmation of individual visits only a week or two in advance, so it's difficult to publicise ahead. Leaflets have to be composed and printed well in advance of the season, before our bookings are received, so that channel is not a useful option, and most of our visitors are touring so won't pick up on information in the local press. For the future, however, we shall be using the social media more, and are hopeful that the increasing awareness and use of mobile technology will enable us to communicate these situations more effectively.We hope that you otherwise enjoyed your visit to the Castle; please don't hesitate to contact us if you would like any further information, and please do let us know in advance if you intend to visit again at any time.

How do you know you are truly in Europe? When something built in the 19th centry is considered "new." Castle Ballindollach, while not having the most intriguing history compared to other castles is still at least worth a trip in to view from the outside. This is such as we did upon our visit in August. The grounds of the castle is so exceptionally tended to that stepping off the gravel path onto the golf course green like lawn almost seems sinful. Do not worry however, even the place to park ones carriage is maintained at such detailed quality such as this.This castle as with many in Scotland, cannot even be seen from the road. Paying admission is required just to lay eyes upon the fairytale like structure.Admission can be obtained to the internal grandure of the castle as well. One can tell that very little expense has been spared here. Even the childrens play area near the parking area is adorned with such playful accoutraments the likeness of my childhood was not accustomed to. OH the parking area has a grass field filled with grazing Al-pakas adjacent to it. See you on the trail and remember, dont be one of "Those."John Eric

This is a wonderful place to visit. The castle and its grounds are absolutely beautiful and everyone makes you feel so welcome. It is spotlessly clean including the WC's which were immacualte. The little restaurant serves some of the best home baking and cooking I have experienced in Scotland and at a very reasonable price. This place should be on your list. Unlike others we had no problem finding it on GPS.