Dundarach Hotel

The Dundarach Hotel is in the picturesque Perthshire town of Pitlochry, standing on high ground overlooking the River Tummel and across the valley to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In a couple of acres of private grounds the accommodation is peaceful, yet just 2 minutes from the centre of town. Originally a wine merchants country house. The traditional atmosphere has been carefully retained in the main part of the building without compromising the level of comfort and service you expect from your hotel. The hotel has 40 bedrooms, 20 traditional and 20 contemporary. Our rooms offer comfortable beds with quality linens, flat screen digital television/radio, tea and coffee making, en-suite facilities. Some rooms and all the public areas have wireless internet access (free of charge). The hotel offers a relaxing lounge giving uninterrupted views of the surrounding hills and hotel grounds. A bar where you can sample a large range of malt whiskeys. An excellent restaurant featuring Scottish produce, a fine wine list, attentive service and outstanding views of the hills and the Vale of Atholl. The famous Pitlochry countryside offers you so much. There is an abundance of different walks. Low level, medium and hill walks. All mapped to help you make the most of it. There are golf courses to suit all handicaps and beginners. There is salmon fishing for the experienced in the River Tummel below the hotel and trout fishing in nearby lochs. You can take in a performance at the world famous Pitlochry Festival Theatre Theatre in the hills, a great live arts experience. You can visit the ancient and stately castles of Glamis, Balmoral, Scone and Blair. An epoch of Scottish history right in Pitlochry. In summer, pipe bands and highland dancing in the field here. You can tour the many byways and backwaters around this highland Perthshire area. Discover Faskally, Tummel, Tilt, Fender and Rannoch. There are other things to do and you will find full details on the activities page. You can see how malt whiskey is made very near the hotel, and sample the famous water of life at either of 2 distilleries here in the town. The hotel itself, a house with history, Dundarach, built in 1863 and taking 8 years to complete, by an Edinburgh wine merchant, is built of Aldour whinstone. A locally quarried stone, soft when extracted, it becomes very hard through exposure. The architect was Heyton, noted for his use of overly heavy wrought iron ridge pieces and italianate features. The south wing was built for the boy scout movement, it was a games room and dormitory, converted later to bedroom accommodation. The west wing was built in the early 20th century for Japanese landscape gardeners and staff by the then proprietor John Dixon. At that time the hotel gardens were much larger and were of Japanese and Italian styles. As was normal at the time, (for Japanese style gardens) there was a miniature Mount Fujiyama, complete with snow covered peak in the local Pitlochry white spar . Ben Vrackie (the mountain that stands behind the town) means speckled mountain, a name that came from the spar (white quartz) which dotted the slopes. Today the spar can be seen around the area in the gardens of the town. Japanese literary giant Soseki Natsume visited the Dundarach Hotel at the time, as a friend of the proprietor and wrote a poem of his stay. Copies are available, translated into english, from the hotel reception. The great house later belonged to Edradour distillery and it was the nieces of the distillery manager who turned the fine old house into a hotel. We hope you have enjoyed reading this piece and we look forward to welcoming you to Dundarach Hotel.