HIGHPOINTS™
What has impressed our Reviewers and Readers most about this hotel?

• Comfortable, friendly hotel with a home away from home feel
• The character and atmosphere of a real Scottish castle
• Excellent range of well appointed guest rooms
• The superb library bar in a castle turret
• A breakfast that will set you up for the day

Intro

Castle Venlaw Hotel is a country house hotel set in a Scottish baronial style castle high on the flank of Ven Law, the hill which stands immediately to the north east of Peebles. The public rooms include a large dining room, divided by a arch into two distinct spaces, and the Adam Room, ideal for functions, meetings or private dining. The hub of the hotel is the library bar, a superb book-lined space set within the large turret at the castle's south east corner. There are 12 guest rooms on three floors, each individually styled, spotlessly clean and well appointed. Lunch is served in the bar and dining room; and dinner in the dining room after drinks in the bar. The breakfast is outstanding and is sure to set you up for the day.

Character and setting/location

The building that is now home to the hotel was built in 1782 by Alexander Stevenson, Sheriff Deputy of Peebleshire, on the site of the medieval Smithfield Castle. What emerged was a fine Georgian mansion. It was not until over a century later, in 1892, that the mansion once more became a castle when a new south wing complete with a magnificent south east turret was added in the Scots Baronial style.

Venlaw Castle became Venlaw Castle Hotel in 1949. A change of ownership in 1997 led to its being renamed Castle Venlaw Hotel. What did not change were the surrounding gardens and woodland, nor the extensive views of the hills to the west and south of Peebles.

You approach up a long drive that climbs the side of Ven Law. Parking is to the front of the hotel.

Public rooms/spaces

The entrance lobby on the east side of the castle gives access via a flight of seven stairs to the reception area and the corridor that links together all the rooms on the ground floor of the hotel. Your first impression is a positive one, of well maintained public areas, of honey coloured woodwork, and of artwork on the walls.

Turn left along the corridor and you pass the Adam Room on your right. Named after the architect Robert Adam, this is the ideal location for functions or private dining. Pressing on, you enter the library bar, a lovely room whose walls are lined with books and more beautiful woodwork, and a real fire on cold days. This occupies the ground floor of the large drum turret and is an excellent venue for lunch or for drinks in the evening.

The hotel's dining room, complete with ornate plasterwork on the cornices and ceilings, offers views over the gardens to the south and east of the hotel. It is divided by an arch which seems to separate the part of the dining room in the original 1782 mansion from the part added in 1892.

The upper floor corridors are as attractive as the ground floor, with more artworks on view, together with more of the hotel's signature honey coloured woodwork.

Guest bedrooms

There are 12 individually styled en-suite bedrooms at Castle Venlaw Hotel. Each has its own character, but all are comfortable, well appointed and spotlessly clean (like the rest of the hotel). There are four grades of room on offer, comprising four classic rooms; four deluxe rooms, two of which can be used as family rooms; three four poster suites; and one romantic suite. There are plans in place to turn one of the deluxe rooms into an additional four poster suite.

The guest rooms are on the upper three storeys of the hotel. Some have fireplaces, which add greatly to the character, and the views depend on the aspect of the room: though many make the most of the broad valleys to the west and south of Ven Law. All the rooms are named after Scottish distilleries, and a nice touch is the incorporation of a miniature bottle of the relevant whisky into the name plate on each room's door.

Guest services

All guest rooms include a TV, telephone, tea and coffee making facilities and shortbread, books and magazines, Gilchrist & Soames toiletries, hairdryer, bottled water, and an iron and ironing board. The deluxe rooms tend to be larger with more flexible accommodation, and offer better views than the classic rooms. The four poster suites also offer a DVD player, a sitting area, bathrobes, a separate walk in shower, heated bathroom floors, and fibre optic lighting above the bath. The top of the range Glenturret Suite offers even more luxuries, including your own champagne cooler, and is found in the upper floor of the castle's turret.

The hotel has a stock of loan DVDs for guest use. Faxes can be sent or received, and parts of the hotel have access to WiFi. There is also a guest internet computer on the first floor landing. A same day laundry service can be arranged, and dry cleaning is possible with a two day turnaround. Guests' valuables can be stored in the hotel safe. Well behaved dogs are welcome by arrangement.

Disabled access at Castle Venlaw Hotel is problematic. It is an old building, and a listed one, which places restrictions on the changes that can be made. As a result, although there is a disabled parking space outside the front door, within it there are seven steps up to the main floor corridor, and further staircases to be climbed en route to any of the guest rooms.

Restaurant and dining experience

The hotel provides sustenance to visitors throughout the day. Morning coffee is served in the library bar from 9.45 to 12.00. Lunch is served in the library and in the dining room from 12.00 to 2.15. Afternoon teas are served in the library from 2.15 to 6.00. And dinner is served from 7.00 to 9.00.

The lunch menu varies from day to day depending on seasonal availability of produce. When we visited it offered a choice of four starters, four mains and four sweets, with each course at a set price, allowing diners a range of options from a single course light starter through to the full three course lunch. Main course options on the day we visited included pan-fried sea bass and shank of Border lamb, plus a vegetarian option.

Dinner is served in the impressive dining room, and is usually preceded by drinks in the neighbouring library bar. On the day of our visit the dinner menu offered eight starters, eight mains and seven sweets including a cheese option. Price was fixed for two or three courses, with supplements attaching to some dishes. The menu demonstrated some interesting and unusual texture and flavour combinations and a number of dishes had a distinct Mediterranean influence.

Breakfast

Breakfast at Castle Venlaw is excellent. The selection of teas an coffees is unusually wide and the first course buffet includes fruits and cold meats, both fresh and attractively presented. For the main course a number of chef's house specials are on offer, including muesli and natural yoghurt cranachan; smoked poached haddock and Gruyère cheese brulee; and scrambled eggs with sliced smoked salmon. Porridge is also available. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of the breakfast was the sheer quality of the cooked breakfasts. Beautifully presented and on piping hot plates, the fried egg was runny as ordered, the scrambled egg was sublime, the bacon was delicious and the Arran mustard sausage was superb. Definitely a breakfast to set you up for the day.

Meetings and events facilities

The hotel has one room, the Adam Room, which can be used for meetings, functions or private dining for groups of between 8 and 20. More widely, with its romantic setting and 12 guest rooms, Castle Venlaw is a great location for hire on an exclusive use basis as a wedding venue for up to 35 guests. Used in this way both the Adam Room and the dining room are available. The hotel can host either civil or religious ceremonies, or host receptions for weddings carried out at Peebles registry office, in one of a number of local churches, or elsewhere. There is an excellent wedding information pack on the hotel's website.

Leisure

As an intimate castle hotel, Castle Venlaw has no dedicated leisure facilities of its own, though the surrounding gardens can be explored and the library bar is a great place to sit back and unwind. The hotel has a range of DVDs that guests may borrow to play in their rooms.

Service highs/lows

The key factors which set a stay at Castle Venlaw apart as something special are the sense of home from home combined with the character and atmosphere of a real castle. The public rooms and guest rooms are equally attractive and comfortable, and the quality of the housekeeping is outstanding. Service is friendly, low key and unintrusive, but always there when you need it. If we were to highlight one single feature worthy of particular note it is the library bar.

Local points of interest

The Scottish Borders are all too easily overlooked by visitors to Scotland, and perhaps by some of us who live here too. Yet if you take the trouble to explore, you find an area which includes some of the most remote parts of Scotland; which offers large and attractive upland areas with valleys carved out by rivers; and with a depth of character and history possibly unrivalled in the UK.

Remnants of this history include a huge number of castles of every shape and size, and Scotland's most impressive collection of abbeys, at Jedburgh, Kelso, Melrose and Dryburgh.

Peebles itself is an attractive town offering a wide range of facilities. It is also an ideal base from which to explore the Tweed Valley and the Borders more widely. Find out more from the Undiscovered Scotland guide to the Peebles area.

Target/ideal markets

The core of Castle Venlaw Hotel's market revolves around leisure visitors: people visiting the Borders who want to stay in a memorable, comfortable and extremely good value castle hotel. Weddings also form an important part of the hotel's business, as do locals and visitors calling in for lunches, dinners, morning coffees or afternoon teas.

Readers’ Reviews

“I stayed as part of a small group recently when we did some golfing and visited Edinburgh. We really enjoyed coming back to Venlaw castle after the day. Always was the food very good, ample, and nicely balanced. The people were friendly and not as rushed as some in Edinburgh. Our rooms were comfortable and had pretty views to the hills. A good choice and we were happy with it. Oh and we had a great time in Scotland so will be back.” – H. Strom (Sweden), 2007

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