The Honeymooners

The one at the top of the hill

The Honeymooners is one of five lodges on Balkello Farm at Auchterhouse, and it is the one set furthest from the farmhouse, up on the hillside in its own large enclosed garden. The south side is a wall of windows, so the living space looks out over 650 acres of farmland with nothing in the frame that belongs to anyone else.

Inside it is a modern eco lodge rather than a converted cottage. Heating is underfloor and run on renewable sources, there is a wood burning stove with logs supplied, and the bed is a super king with Egyptian cotton sheets. The bathroom has a double bath, the lodge has its own sauna, and outside there is a private hot tub that nobody else books a slot in.

The same owners let four more lodges here that are not on this site: the Lovers, the Dreamers, the Stargazers, and the Romantics. The Stargazers and the Lovers add a heated relaxation room and an outdoor day bed, and the Romantics is the traditional cottage closest to the farm, so there is somewhere else on the same hill if this one is booked.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Auchterhouse sits under the Sidlaw Hills on the north side of Dundee, which is the useful bit of geography here: the farm is surrounded by fields and the community woodland next door, and the city is close enough that dinner out is a short drive rather than an expedition.

In town, the waterfront is the obvious first stop, and The McManus is the one for a wet afternoon, a Gothic pile of a museum holding the collection that explains how Dundee got here. The story of the jute mills and what replaced them is more interesting than the design capital branding suggests.