If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP145.83), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
A sign promising ‘coffee, lunch, negroni’ is the beacon directing incoming guests, weary travellers and refreshment seekers to the Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart, near the Perthshire town of Pitlochry. Inside, there’s all that and so much more, especially if you’re in the market for a tasting menu of seasonal Scottish produce. Outside, the River Tay is over the road and waiting for paddle-board, kayak or white-water-raft take-offs; and sister stay Ballintaggart Farm (and its tennis court and cookery school) are two miles away. You’ll be glad you called by to rest your head – and not just because of the noteworthy negronis, though they’re a noble place to start.
Double rooms from £175.00, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates usually include breakfast.
Also
The Victorian building is unfortunately not easily accessible for wheelchair users.
Hotel closed
From November to March, the hotel is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. It also shutters up for a few days over Christmas and for two weeks of January.
At the hotel
Free WiFi, library, terrace, and tennis court (over at sister site Ballintaggart Farm). In rooms: Noble Isle bath products, TV, and tea and coffee from the Glen Lyon roastery up the road in Aberfeldy.
Our favourite rooms
Each of the Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart’s eight rooms has its own quirks and charms (and tile colour). If you like the sound of a record player and a well-picked selection of vinyls (ie Bob Dylan to Bananarama), book Room 3; fittingly, it also has a feature wall graced by some wallpaper called ‘Pet Sounds’ starring badgers, guitars and trumpets. For the most natural light, book Room 7, which has the most windows of them all; it can connect with Room 6 for friends and families. Four of the rooms have roll-top bath tubs, so book wisely if soak potential is a dealbreaker. Room 8 has a buffeted-from-the-wind, sun-trap terrace to enjoy your morning coffee or early-evening negroni on.
Packing tips
You can basically take the hotel home with you: the bottle of wine you loved, the soap that smelled amazing, the throw that was so soft – it’s all for sale up the road in Aberfeldy at the Ballintaggart boutique, with a smaller selection available for purchase at reception.
Also
Since this is Scotland, you’re never far from a wee dram – in fact, all you’ll have to do is tap the ‘press for whisky’ button in the library.
Children
All ages are welcome to stay, but kids under 14 are not allowed in the restaurant. There is a children’s menu in the bar, though, and one set of connecting rooms, along with cots and rollaway beds.
If there’s a group of you (or you’re just feeling especially sociable), dine beneath some hanging bowler hats at the 20-seater long dining table.
Dress Code
Since the decor has banished tartan, you might as well bust out your clan’s preferred check.
Hotel restaurant
You won’t find anything as unsustainable as an avocado on the seasonal, hyper-local, frequently changing menu at the Grandtully restaurant; even salmon is banned – instead, the chefs look for sustainable, Scottish alternatives (we’re not sure what the Celtic equivalent of an avocado is, but we’re sure it’s delicious). Diners can choose between the tasting menu (with vegetarian and vegan options available) or the shorter seasonal set menu. Courses might feature beef tartare with soy-cured egg yolk and house-gin-enhanced pickled onion; or wild halibut with salt-baked celeriac and Inverlussa mussels. Breakfast is a hearty spread of sourdough with Ballintaggart jams and marmalades, cheese and charcuterie, and a hot special (such as an Isle of Mull cheddar hash brown with a fried egg and herb yoghurt) that changes daily.
Hotel bar
The Tully starts the day as a coffee shop and bakehouse, and ends it as somewhere to enjoy an expertly mixed cocktail with a garnish from the garden, a pint of its own beer (Tully Table), a G&T made with Ballintaggart gin or a glass of natural wine, picked by the resident grape guru. The menu served here depends on what the chef can get hold of; even the cocktails change with the seasons, which is great news for regulars and returning guests.
Last orders
The Tully is open from 10am until 11pm, with hot food served from 12.30pm to 4pm and 5.30pm to 8.30pm. In the restaurant, the tasting menu is served between 6pm and 8pm; the market menu is available until 8.30pm.
Room service
A small selection of dishes can be delivered to your room between 9am and 8pm.
The Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart is in the Perthshire Highlands, an hour and a half away from both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Planes
There’s an airport in Dundee an hour’s drive away, but your best bets are Edinburgh and Glasgow, both of which are within around a 90-minute journey by car from the hotel. It’s also possible to touch down at Inverness, which is a two-hour drive north. The team can organise a local taxi to greet you if needed.
Trains
The nearest station is 10 miles away in Pitlochry; the hotel can arrange taxi pick-ups on your behalf. It’s a stop on the Inverness to London line and the Caledonian Sleeper regularly chugs in during the wee hours, too.
Automobiles
A car will come in handy for seeing as much of the scenic Scottish surroundings as possible – there’s free parking at the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart is directly opposite the River Tay, so it’d be rude not to take to its rushing waters at least once (you can choose your mode of transport from the usual suspects: kayak, paddle-boards, white-water raft…). If you want to take kayaking seriously, make the 20-minute pilgrimage to Loch Tay. Also available on the placid waters of the loch are banana boats and more paddle-boards; it even has water trampolines. It’s also a popular spot for salmon fishing, gorge walking and canyoning. Hikers in these parts will frequently be rewarded by waterfalls as well as the regular, just-as-breathtaking Scottish scenery along the Rob Roy Way. Aberfeldy is remarkably well-equipped for a small town – there’s an art deco cinema, a beautiful bookshop, a distillery and, of course, the Ballintaggart farm shop. In the other direction, Dunkeld is also worthy of some mooching. You’ll also be able to head over to sister stay Ballintaggart Farm a couple of miles away for a class at the Cook School by Ballintaggart, a feast night or a round of tennis. And this may not quite be the Alps, but the nearby Cairngorms National Park is home to one of the UK’s few-and-far-between ski resorts.
Local restaurants
Around 10 miles or so north of Pitlochry, Killiecrankie House is a fine-dining restaurant surrounded by towering trees in the Cairngorms National Park, where you can feast on seafood-focused tasting menus (some of which last for 15 courses). At the Glenturret distillery in Crieff, there’s a restaurant on hand if you’ve overdone it during the whisky tasting, but be quick – it only has seven tables. And if you find yourself in the centre of Perth (a 35-minute drive away from the hotel), Deans will reward you with tattie scones, haggis with whisky cream, and West Coast fish pie.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this high-on-style hotel in the Highlands and unpacked their whisky and wines, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart in Perthshire…
The train may be arriving too late for Victorian travellers checking in to rest their weary heads at the Grandtully Hotel by Ballintaggart, a former railway hotel, but luckily for modern-day travellers it’s cosier and more comfortable than ever. Along with the signpost outside advertising all of the essentials (coffee, lunch, negroni), the fire out on the terrace is the (literal) smoke signal for locals and passersby to know whether their favourite hangout is open – it usually is, with guests warming up with whisky and blankets in winter (and quite likely in summer). The tartan, thistles and Highland coos are out, in favour of streamlined, Scandi-inspired interiors: colourful wall-panelling and bathroom tiles, hanging bulbs, sheepskin-lined desk chairs and the odd patterned headboard. The vintage luggage racks are a nod to the 1860s, even if you’re unlikely to have a wheel-less trunk in tow; and the signs, created by a local artist, may give you Bakerloo-line vibes. And before you embarrass yourself publicly, it’s pronounced ‘Grantly’, not ‘Grandtully’. You’re welcome.
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