Monday, January 22, 2018

A Stay at Gleneagles

The Little Magpie Gleneagles Hotel Review
What an entrance, huh? Gleneagles is a hotel I've wanted to stay at for a long, long time and last year I finally had the pleasure of visiting not once but twice! It's located about an hour's drive from Glasgow and is the perfect place for a special getaway. It boasts a spa (which I'll come back to, don't you worry), clay pigeon shooting, horse-riding, tennis, award-winning golf courses, cycling and archery - among other things - so is somewhere you can go and very easily spend an entire weekend without setting foot from the property once! It also boasts the only restaurant in Scotland to hold two Michelin stars, so if you fancy going all out then that's there and waiting for you.

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We arrived on the Friday evening, checked into our room - 'holy moly' was, I think, our initial reaction - and nipped down to dinner at the French-American Birnam Brasserie which, with it's beautiful tiles and hanging plants, is a bit like Pinterest come to life. Being gluten intolerant meant I wasn't able to try some for myself, but I have it on very good authority that the Macaroni cheese is incredible (based on sight and smell, I can only imagine this to be 100% true). 

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I can't honestly put into words how beautiful the suite is so I really hope that the photos do it justice! From the views to the golden bath to the big, open living room I don't honestly know which part was my favourite. It's such a nice, relaxing space to sit in so make sure and leave some room in your itinerary to spend unwinding in the room. I'd also recommend having breakfast in the room at least once! (Note: the gin and the breakfast were not intended to be enjoyed together. I promise that's not what we do in Scotland). Ooh, also, the Gleneagles sea salt chocolate is one of the best things you'll ever eat.

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Wearing Karen Millen faux fur jacket

After filling ourselves to the brim with french toast, omelette, fruit, pastries... I could go on, we headed down to do some clay pigeon shooting. It's not something I've ever done before and I was 87% sure I was going to be terrible. Spoiler: I was. I was completely and utterly crap. It's such a fun way to spend a morning, especially on a dry day, no matter how good or how bad you happen to be (I've set the bar pretty low for you, don't worry) and is a great activity to do with friends. If you don't mind things getting a little competitive, that is. With our breakfast bellies starting to disappear, we went back inside to do something I'm a lot better at than clay pigeon shooting... eating. Not-hitting clay pigeons all morning really takes it out of you, you see. We had a really lovely afternoon tea in the big, bright Glendevon room with the girls and had a natter and a giggle over sandwiches, cake, tea, scones and more tea. After hours of blabbing away, we realised the light was starting to go down so ran over to pick up some bikes and had ourselves a leisurely cycle down to the lake to watch the sunset.

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Wearing Topshop blue linen dress

After changing into our fineries, we were driven the very short drive from the hotel over to Bob & Cloche, Gleneagles' hot new beauty destination. It's recently been transformed from the old gate lodge into what you see above and is such a lovely, welcoming, homely space. That's three adjectives in a row right there so you know I like it. You can have a manicure or a pedicure, you can have your hair done or a wax or a facial if you so feel like it. Or all of the above! All of the facials are done with Oskia products, which are one of my favourite skincare brands, so I was in my element. It's a wonderful place to visit regardless, but I imagine if you were at Gleneagles on a girls weekend or a hen do it'd be a particularly special place to hang out. Now, I said I was going to come back to the spa, didn't I? So, there are no pictures here but Gleneagles has one of my favourite spas I've ever been to. If you go, you need to visit, ok? In fact, you can visit regardless of whether you're staying at the hotel! Honestly, it's an amazing place to spend a day - or half a day, depending on how long you have - and I couldn't really recommend it more if I tried (if I hadn't already used my three adjectives on Bob & Cloche I'd use them here). There's everything you could want from a spa and more!

Now suitably pampered, we headed back to the hotel to have some drinks at the American Bar - where you feel like you've stepped right back into the 1920s to have a date with Gatsby - and then finished the night with some dinner at the beautiful Strathearn restaurant. 

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The next morning, sadly, was check-out day and I really, really didn't want to leave our little Gleneagles bubble. I'm still trying to work out how I could live there permanently. Hide in the big gold bath every time someone comes to look for me? Possibly. We had breakfast in our room and headed out for one last walk around the grounds before a meeting with Brenda the horse who, despite having been in Vogue, was very down to earth and even let me have a photo with her regal self.

And, alas, that brought our trip to an end! It's such a wonderful, wonderful place for a countryside escape and I can guarantee you'll leave feeling a lot more peaceful and relaxed than you went in. Probably a lot fuller too, if you indulge in the breakfasts like we did.

Amy

Photos a mix of Kirsty McLachlan and Myself