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Smiley Staff, Gorgeous Surroundings and Whisky Galore!By Gilly Pickup
The room’s overall colour scheme, a vista of calm soft
cream and pale lemon tones is pleasing, while the queen-size bed with gold and
white scrolled throw, matching swagged and tailed curtains and soft panelled
headboard add a touch of swishness.
The compact spotless bathroom managed to squeeze in bath, power shower and a sheer abundance of towels, flannels, B&W toiletries, cotton wool, shoe shine mitts, liquid soap and tissues, everything really that a guest would need. After sprucing-up, it was time for drinks in the bar while we pored over the dinner menu.
Sleep came easily on the marshmallow pillows in the pleasantly firm bed with nothing to disturb weary travelers but snatches of early morning birdsong and the occasional bleat of sheep in the fields nearby. Breakfast offers a wide choice of juices, fresh fruits, prunes, grapefruit, yoghurt, cereals and muesli and tasty porridge served with a separate bowl of cream. Cooked dishes include eggs however you like them, and a host of goodies including bacon, sausage, haggis, tattie scones, kippers, as well as plenty of thick slices of toast, home made preserves and tea and coffee.
Actually, I know the truth about why it hangs there but I’m not going to spill the beans. To find out for yourself, you’ll have to pay a visit….. Best Western Dryfesdale Country House Hotel, Dryfebridge, Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire DG11 2SF, Scotland. Winner of the 2004-2005 AA Scottish service hotel of the
year Websites: www.dryfesdalehotel.co.uk and www.bestwestern.co.uk Best Western booking line: 0845 33 00 120. Pets, by prior arrangement, are welcome and ground floor rooms are available for disabled guests or those requiring wheelchair access. All photos © Gilly Pickup except pic 4 Bedroom, copyright Dryfesdale House Hotel. |
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TM
Just a few miles north of the border between England and
Scotland, a mere stone’s throw from the M74, nestles a peach of a former 17th
century mansion. The Dryfesdale Country House Hotel near Lockerbie in
Dumfriesshire, set amid five acres of scenic, elevated parkland is approached
through a winding avenue of beech trees. The building, converted
into a Country House Hotel in the early 1950s, has belonged to the current
owners since 1999 and has undergone major
refurbishment in the past few years
including a 12-room extension and the magnificent carving of the Kirkhill Piper
which stands proudly at the entrance to the driveway. Couples can
get married here too and unlike many hotels who offer complete wedding packages,
at Dryfesdale, every detail is tailor made right down to the smallest detail.
What a pleasure it is to be greeted by capable, smiley
staff! It makes a whole world of difference although there are still many
hotels that don’t seem to clock how important first impressions are.
Dryfesdale’s bright, well furnished reception area is efficiently run, though I
did a double take when I saw a rather fiercesome-looking sword hanging on the
wall behind the reception desk (but more about that later.)
The
hotel has 28 luxuriously appointed en suite bedrooms, all of which have superb
views of the surrounding countryside. Our ground floor room overlooking the Dryfe Valley had French
doors opening onto a patio, an ideal spot for guests to enjoy
a relaxing pre-prandial drink while also
drinking
in the views across the tiny town of Lockerbie and the rolling Borders
countryside. A
spectacular sweeping staircase backlit by a magnificent stained glass window
leads to the other bedrooms, three of which have been transformed into luxurious
four poster suites.
Our room was much as we expected: compact and efficiently
kitted out. In fact it had nearly everything finicky people like us could want
including satellite tv, trouser press, hairdryer, fab hospitality tray chocca
with goodies including bottles of Scottish water, shortbread and sweets, all of
which were generously replaced daily … but – and I am sorry to turn on Moaning
Minnie Mode here – no chest of drawers and a munchkin sized wardrobe meant not a
lot of space for travellers to hang their hat, or indeed other apparel they may
have brought along for the journey.
Unlike many hotel rooms I’ve stayed in this
had a cosy feel, not yet another impersonal hotel room.
The hotel is renowned for its fine food and guests can
choose to eat in the spacious 2 Rosette Kirkhill Restaurant with its wonderful
views of the surrounding countryside and French polished grand piano to add a
touch of grandeur. Those who prefer can opt to have their meals in the more
casual setting of the Malt bar, so-called because it holds a selection of over
100 malt whiskies ranging from 10 year old to 42 year old. However, wherever guests choose to eat, only the freshest
ingredients selected from local suppliers are used including Solway salmon,
Galloway beef and Lockerbie cheeses. 
Starters include delights like poached pear salad with
pecan nuts and blue cheese with honey and pink peppercorn dressing, or chicken
and haggis thyme terrine with Melba toast served with red onion marmalade. Main
temptations include herb stuffed corn fed chicken supreme on roasted garlic
mash, sautéed chards and mushroom sauce or seared wild salmon supreme with roast
new potatoes, green stir fry and Hollandaise sauce. Whatever you choose, you can
be assured that you’ll be given a generous helping served with a smile.
Puddings, if you can manage to fit one in, are also moreishly tempting – think
summer berry cheesecake presented in a glass with strawberry ice cream or maybe
roasted pineapple with lemon sorbet and strawberry puree. 
The Dryfesdale
House Hotel offers a comfortable, semi-rural retreat at a reasonable price and
it certainly ticked all the right boxes for us. Oh – and what’s that? Ah, yes, the sword. Well, Glen
Wright, the hotel’s owner, joked that it was there to scare those guests who
wouldn’t pay their bills…….