Hillhouse

A whole house, and a team who stay out of the way

Hillhouse is not a hotel, and not quite a self-catering let either. The house goes to one group at a time, ten bedrooms and six reception rooms of it, with a housekeeping team working around you for the length of the stay. That is what the place is for: twenty people under one roof, without queueing for a bathroom.

The bedrooms are individually done and each carries White Company linen, luxury soaps, a television, and wifi. Nine bathrooms serve the ten rooms, several with baths set into marble. Downstairs there is a drawing room, a library, a dining room, a grand sitting room, and a games room built around a snooker table, so twenty people can be in four places at once and still eat together.

Food is arranged rather than provided. The owners keep a list of Scottish chefs and caterers who will cook at the house or deliver a supper ready to heat, and you can bring your own cook, use the guest kitchen, or drive the ten minutes into Troon. There is also a treatment room, where a therapist offers deep tissue, Swedish, and hot stone massage by arrangement.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

The house sits two miles inland from Troon, which puts it in the middle of the densest stretch of links golf in Ayrshire. The owners give Dundonald Links at two miles, Royal Troon and Western Gailes at three, Prestwick at six, and Turnberry at 25, so a group can play a different Open venue each day and be back for dinner.

Away from the golf, the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum is about half an hour down the coast and Culzean Castle a 40 minute drive. Troon Marina runs the ferry to Arran and will charter you a boat. The owners put Glasgow at 40 minutes and Edinburgh at about an hour.