We stopped off here for a night on the way north for a weekend break in Ardnamurchan. The hotel is in a lovely quiet location in North Ballachulish beside the old ferry crossing here, now supplanted by the bridge. The lady on the desk was very friendly and welcoming when we arrived, and even showed us to our room upstairs.
Although we arrived just after 8pm, we were still in time to order dinner in the restaurant, and were soon tucking into some fine sea bass with mussels. They had kindly noted my dairy intolerance and the chef had prepared an alternative sauce for mine with capers, which was perhaps a touch too piquant for the fish, but better than the creamy alternative, and full marks to them for trying.
There are lovely gardens and spectacular views over Loch Leven and the mountains to the south from the dining room, and watching the colours change with the sunset whilst sipping a glass of fine Pedro Ximenez sherry was a memorable close to the evening.
Our room was on the corner, so we had loads of space and views both south and west. The en-suite was roomy and had a great shower, and the room also had a decent-sized television instead of the usual 12" budget sets that you frequently find elsewhere. The Wi-Fi is free although there is patchy reception in the rooms, which is just the way I like it. I don't sleep well with a strong Wi-Fi signal in the room.
The only problem, and it was more of a comedy moment than a problem, was in the morning when we couldn't get our room door to open and had to phone down to reception for help. There was some issue with the way you took the key out of the door while holding the inside knob that caused it to lock up. It certainly gave us a laugh, but in other circumstances could have been problematic. Not worth deducting a star from the review for however.
We had a morning foray through the beautiful gardens down to the old ferry slipway, where you get good views up and down the loch. There's a footpath that goes along the loch frontage to the next bay, but we didn't have time to explore that on this trip.
It's also worth checking out the small selection of locally-made jewellery and gifts on display at reception; we found some lovely earrings and brooches that were very reasonably priced. read more