We stayed in the Victorian Room, £130 for 2 nights. It is a large front room with magnificent moldings, a marble fireplace, loveseat, and four-poster bed. There are all the other niceties: hair dryer, remote-control TV, CD player/alarm, and tea and coffeemaking facilities. The three-piece bath is an add-on in the room, but it has been done extremely well. I admit that I laid in bed the first morning thinking that I could probably just afford to actually live here all year; it was that good.

The three rooms share an equally elegant lounge, but we found our room so comfortable that we weren’t encouraged to spend any time there.

Breakfast is particularly well done. Guests eat at the six-seat, round table in the home’s dining room. The menu selection includes almost everything that you could possibly want for breakfast and then some. I had never thought about filling a couple of crepes with bacon and sprinkling them with cheese, but while they should be illegal, if just for the calorie content, they’re very good. And there’s much more, from kippers to a full Scottish breakfast.

The attention to detail is incredible – everything is just about perfect and the Mailers are wonderful hosts. The caveats are that you may not arrive until after 4pm and that while you have a key to your room, you do not have a key to the house and are expected to vacate it between 10am and 4pm during the day. Also, payment is to be in cash. The property features enough parking for its guests and the entrance to the drive has electronic gates. I really can’t think of much that the Mailers could do to improve their operation. You can see their site at Ashgrove House.