Great accommodation, great service, and fabulous scenery. Food was excellent. Room was excellent. Excellent decor, excellent room, bathroom excellent. Very difficult to fault, and in fact I could not.

Their hot tip was to book early, but another reviewer this week wrote about their “amazing spur of the moment stay”. Indeed these guests from Aberdeen booked to stay at The Torridon on the same morning they arrived. And as revealed in their TripAdvisor review, it all went very well indeed.

Keen cyclists, we’d brought our mountain bikes and took advantage of the beautiful loch side trails. You cannot tire of the scenery here. The meal in the evening was delicious and the staff could not have been more attentive and pleasant. We were lucky enough to have a deluxe room and it was perfect, we slept with the windows open all night and all you could hear for miles was the sound of bird song in the morning.

The next morning we booked ourselves in for some more of the complimentary activities and ended up rock climbing and abseiling with the brilliant instructor, Kyle – who was excellent by the way! As a first time rock climber, I could not have felt more safe. We were so sad to leave The Torridon and the surrounding area – we can’t wait to go back.

And we can’t wait to welcome you back.

Photo credit: Steve Carter

The post This Week in TripAdvisor: Reviews of The Torridon appeared first on The Torridon.

Load the kids into the car as soon as their school holidays begin. Or go the aerial route: we are just 60 miles from Inverness Airport.

There won’t be any mention of the b-word (hint: “bored”) as The Torridon offers all of its family activities free as part of the daily activity programme.

There is a morning and afternoon activity session every day, with a variety of supervised outdoor pursuits dedicated to helping the whole family enjoy our natural playground.

Guests as young as six years old enjoy climbing adventures, guided walks and archery. Kids 10 years and older can try loch kayaking or perhaps gorge scrambling.

For the gorge scrambling they are fitted out in wetsuits, helmets and buoyancy aids, then allowed to explore waterfalls, rock slides and water pools under the watchful eye of highly trained instructors.

No experience is necessary to try any of these activities, and the instructors ensure that all adventures are conducted with the goal of safe fun in mind.

Think Torridon for a family summer holiday in Scotland this year.

The post A Summer Holiday for All the Family at The Torridon: Scotland’s Natural Playground appeared first on The Torridon.

With the changing rooms being right beside the bike and kayak stores, this means we now have everything in one place which means we get out to play even quicker than before. We used the new facilities this week and we are very happy with them. It is a great start to the coming season.

The post Changing Rooms: Torridon Activities Extends its Facilities appeared first on The Torridon.

Our room overlooked the sea loch and when we woke in the morning, we watched the cun colour the top of the mountains while deer wandered through the grounds.

You can read all about their Scottish wedding in We Fell in Love illustrated with superb wedding photographs from Soraya Photography near Inverness.

Paula and George chose a humanist wedding ceremony and added personal touches such as the cake, which was George’s own work and the three framed maps presented to George by Paula, representing their three special places: where they met, where they live and Loch Torridon, where they were married.

Chef Bruno and his brigade worked wonders with a five course wedding fest including mini fish and chip canapés, Highland lamb, West Coast sea bass and a fresh scallop risotto.

Inspired? If you would like to start planning your own Highland wedding contact us today.

The post Picture Perfect: Another Fine Highland Wedding at The Torridon appeared first on The Torridon.

Called a Land of Opportunity, the event will feature our own Bruno Birkbeck with three other Highland-based chefs.

Bruno will recreate many of the flavours which consistently deliver rave reviews in the Torridon Restaurant, choosing from local fish and seafood, our own kitchen garden produce and of course the renowned Torridon beef from our herd of Highlanders.

Joining Chef Birkbeck in the Land of Opportunity will be Muji Rahman from Cafe India in Dingwall, David Coubrough, from Cafe 1 in Inverness and Steven Devlin from the Rocpool Restaurant in Inverness.

Each chef will be expected to create a menu for the day using only Highlands and Islands sourced produce.

Given that Bruno uses so much from so close to our doorstep already, he should not have too much trouble wowing the audience.

Tickets for The Royal Highland Show 2013 20 – 23 June, can be obtained from the RHS website.

The post A Taste of The Torridon at the Royal Highland Show 2013 appeared first on The Torridon.

I try and break them in gently but decided this week it was time to open some whiskies and let the team learn together. They chose two malts each and learned the characteristics, where they are from and some interesting facts about the distilleries chosen.

A gold star goes to Amy who learned everything about her chosen whiskies and is now known as the whisky geek.

In total, 16 whiskies were tried and noted.

I am glad to say that my beloved Ardbeg is still one of the champions with all the team agreeing how fantastic it is. I am confident now that should any of the team be asked to recommend a great whisky they can come up with a varied selection.

Slainte

Colleen

The post Generous to a Malt: Staff Training in the Whisky Bar appeared first on The Torridon.

Great news from the annual Scottish Hotel Awards this week and a testament to the many adventures our guests can go on in this wild and wonderful corner of Scotland.

As well as our own guided activities, we work very closely with local tour providers. Last week we had some guests who flew to the Isle of Skye for the day on a sea plane. The plane landed in Loch Sheildaig and Torridon Sea Tours kindly transported the guests by boat to the plane.

Whether you take to the air, sea or your walking boots, there is always plenty to do at the Torridon.

The post Find Your Spirit of Adventure at The Torridon: Activities Hotel of the Year 2013 appeared first on The Torridon.

Their judges were Tom Bell, editor of Sawday’s Special Places British Hotels & Inns, Erin Boyd, founder of dog-friendly travel company Chien Bleu and Tamara Heber-Percy, co-founder and one half of Mr & Mrs Smith.

We are delighted to say they included The Torridon as one the 50 best hotels in Britain.

Here is what they said:

The Torridon
Sports-car manufacturers host events here because of its remote location, fine whisky selection and proximity to the empty Highland roads, Applecross and Skye. The rest of us will love it for its rustic charm, fine views and old world luxury.

Independent readers and independent-minded travellers are always welcome to try us out for themselves.

The post 50 of the Best: Independent Recommendations from a Trio of Hotel Experts appeared first on The Torridon.

Winners will also have a chance to meet Cameron McNeish, well-known ambassador of Scotland’s outdoors life, during three VIP experiences.

To enter, you need to watch the video presented by McNeish on the Real Radio competition page. If you pay particular attention from the 4 minute mark, you’ll see The Torridon in all its glory, with the host pausing to tie his bootlaces in front of the hotel before setting off for a hike.

He calls it “A fantastic hotel in a stunning location”.

If you would like to join McNeish and Rabbie’s on this fantastic adventure, try your hand at the competition and best of luck.

Try a Low Stress Introduction to Kayaking under High Pressure Skies

While the rest of the country was suffering from heavy snow, here in Torridon we were blessed with blue skies and high atmospheric pressure. Guests at The Torridon took advantage of this and got out to explore the water in kayaks under the tuition of our resident Activities Instructors.

If you would like to try kayaking on a beautiful Scottish loch, check out the Torridon Activities section.

The post Win a 5 day Tour of Natural Scotland with Real Radio, Rabbie’s and Visit Scotland appeared first on The Torridon.

Recommend a friend to The Torridon and not only will we place a chilled bottle of champagne in your room next time you stay, but we will do the same for your friends when they visit.

If you recommend a friend, be sure to remind them to tell us that you recommended them so that we can make sure you both receive your gift on arrival.

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