Ormidale Estate has 4 different homes to rent for a holiday or special occassion. It's in a beautifully rural part of Scotland that's only over 1 hour and a half away from Glasgow. If you really want to get away from the hustle and bustle, this is the place you want to go. I stayed in the Mill House which is next to the Old Barn. There is a large open plan kitchen that leads on to the living room with three big comfy sofas, a large tv and real fireplace. Off the livingroom, there's a utility room with another fridge, a washing machine and tumble dryer. Next door, there's a games room with plenty of games, books and DVDs to occupy kids. Upstairs, there's a sauna and 9 bedrooms for 22 people to stay. Some of the rooms have double beds and others have bunk beds with a double bed at the bottom. There's no ensuites but there are a total of 4 bathrooms. The bedrooms are quite small but there are storage spaces underneath the bed. There's another seating area next to the bedrooms that leads out onto the outdoor area that's got a hot tub and trampoline. There's plenty of seating for 22 people and the garden area was placed away from the Old Barn's outdoor area which gave us more privacy. What I Liked: * Plenty of space to roam around the estate and cars are parked away from the house. * The house had two dishwashers so we always had enough cutlery. * The house was decorated nicely and had a cosy feel, it felt lived in (in a good way). * Although it's self catering, they had just about everything you needed for cooking and dining. Ormidale Estate is near Kames, a lovely part of Scotland that gets a lot of sun with views to the Isle of Bute. I'd go back again as even with a house of 22 people, it never felt overcrowded. read more

Stayed as a guest of Fraser Dallas for a brilliant birthday weekend. Everyone had a brilliant time, the place was big and beautiful and brilliantly equipped. The hot tub, like the swimming pool was a big hit and the on-site catering second to none. read more

Nestled in the Argyll hills, Ormidale is a hidden gem and the perfect place to get away from it all. We stayed in the stunning Ormidale House and found it to be everything we wanted - and more. The house has everything you would need for a holiday and boasts large bedrooms, public areas and even a huge games room with a full size snooker table, darts board and lots of other games. Look out for all the amazing celebrity signed pictures and framed sports shirts - including one from Scotland's favourite son - Andy Murray. There are TV rooms with Sky TV on hand, a large dining room or lounges with real fires to cosy up beside on cold nights. Ormidale is perfectly placed to explore Argyll but if you fancy staying put you will find a swimming pool, hot tub, tennis court, football pitch or just relax around the vast grounds. The owners have spent a lot of time and effort making sure Ormidale offers the perfect experience. We attended with kids aged 15, 11 and 6 and a boisterous dog. All of them had a ball. We will be back. read more

I stayed here for a friend's birthday, the house is nice, great having a private hot tub and the house was spacious. That is about all I have to say that is good about this property. It took us 2 weeks after returning and for my friend to get in contact about our deposit before we were told there had been damage done to the pool area. To which we were then accused of being in the pool area on our first night (Wednesday). We were no where near the pool as in the handbook we knew it wasn't open once we had arrived and settled. So we spent our night in the hot tub/sauna and having a catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a while. on the Thursday morning a few members wandered along to see what allocated time we had in the pool, we weren't sure if others were staying on the estate so thought we best check first. We only stayed about half an hour of our allocated hour as the pool was freezing cold. The claimed damages were present in some photos we had of the area, which in our photos you can clearly see there is mould around this area - clearly hadn't happened over night. We took the photos to independent specialists - one of which is a Civil Engineer and he stated that there was no way this damage could have been caused without the use of a hammer and a chisel in the accused night in question. Instead it looks to be like 'poorly laid tiles' and the 'bonding cement was ready to go'. Meaning over time water had gotten into this causing it to rot the floor underneath causing the tiles to lift. We never once saw ANY member of staff anywhere on site. If the staff had heard any noise coming from the pool area why didn't they investigate this at the time and check straight away what had happened. I've read another review on here from October 2016 where someone mentioned the pool area had mould etc, the owner replied that it 'was a victim of a bashy bunch of destructive guests'. (Sounding a bit familiar about the way we have been spoken about by the owner) Seems like it's needed an upgrade for a while. I have seen the emails between my friend and the owner and I am disgusted at the way in which he has spoken to her and about the rest of the party, calling us liars and all sorts of awful names. Very disappointing to what was, a nice getaway. read more

The Mill House. The house itself was nice and spacious for our group, with the added bonus of a hot tub and sauna. On the second day we noticed the timetable for the indoor swimming pool stating which 'house' could use the pool at a dedicated time. A few of us attended the pool at our allocated time slot which, sadly this was cut short due to the pool being freezing cold. Before attending we were told there would be staff on site at all times, but we did not see anyone that represented Ormidale House or indeed on behalf of John (the owner). This prove difficult at the start of the getaway as we could not locate the key for the property and is wasn't until a friend opened the door we realised the property was unlocked. This meaning the property was insecure for a time until we got there which was a bit of a concern. Overall the visit was great regardless of the minor issue of a cold swimming pool, but this wasn't the end of our dealings with Ormidale House. After our group leader (the birthday girl) eventually got a reply from John about the return of our security deposit, she was met with serious allegations of damage to the swimming pool area. After lengthy emails, some of which are borderline slander towards our group, it became apparent that John was adamant that our group had caused the damage. On presenting John with images of the pool area during our short time of using it, there was clear pictures that the area was already in a poor condition. I believe that John is just trying to find a scapegoat for the poor attention of maintenance needed to this area and thought that blaming a "young" group would solve his problem. John has shown a clear unprofessional approach to this issue which has now escalated to legal proceedings. This is still going on and sadly, what started as a good few days away celebrating a milestone birthday with a group of friends, which in itself is extremely difficult to plan in the first place, has turned into nothing but being called names, being accused of criminal damage and dealing with a very unpleasant person. From the emails/phone calls that have taken place John has come across as being an unapproachable, arrogant and an unreasonable person. During the course of this all we asked from John is show a record of maintenance to the area which he is unable to proceed, showing a clear lack of responsibility as the owner in my eyes. After reading other reviews which shown similar issues to ours, we are now in contact with those persons who were also in the same situation in regards to security deposits not being returned. Therefore, if you are looking for a professional owner to take care of a special event I would avoid this property and John at all costs. It has clearly not been worth it all and it has put an extreme about of unnecessary stress for the event organiser, who again was the birthday girl who should have great memories of her celebrations but sadly its now resulted in court proceedings. I hope this review helps you in your choice for picking a nice property for a special occasion as it should not be this property. read more