Where to stay on the Isle of Skye: Duisdale House Hotel Review

Back in 2019, Terry, Max and I spent 4 hours (No, that’s not a typo, it really was just four hours, not days…) on the Isle of Skye, and I ended the blog post I wrote about that particular act of insanity with the promise that we’d go back sometime, and stay for longer. Like 5 hours, say.

Now, normally when I say things like that, it’s a sure sign I’m never going to mention the place in question ever again. It’s a bit like when you meet up with people you don’t see all that often and, when you leave, you’re all, “Oh, we must do this again soon!” while secretly knowing that’s the last you’ll ever hear of them.

Or is that just me?

For once, however, I’m happy to say that I’ve made good on my promise, because, last week, we continued our half-term trip to the Highlands with a three-day stay on Skye, courtesy of the Duisdale House Hotel.

Duisdale House is located on Skye’s Sleat peninsula. It started life as a hunting lodge, back in the 1830s, but is now a luxurious boutique hotel, with a two rosette restaurant.

There’s a variety of different rooms available inside the old lodge house itself, but, as we were traveling with my parents (and, of course, Max), we were staying in one of the cute little cottages in the grounds, which are perfect for families and larger groups.

The lodges are every bit as luxurious as the house itself. Ours had a giant bed for Terry and I, a double room for my parents, plus a sofa bed for Max, which he was very excited about, and tried to make us all sleep in with him at various points during our stay. We also had a large wet room with shower, a separate bathroom with the most decadent free-standing bath I ever did see, and a huge entrance area with plenty of storage for coats, wellies etc. (Very important when you’re in the Highlands!)

I particularly loved the big windows, which had views out over the hotel’s beautiful gardens to the loch and mountains beyond. Unfortunately the mist and rain which Skye is known for obscured the view a lot of the time, which is why I don’t have many photos to show you, but the wet weather brings a drama all of its own to the scenery, and when the mist clears, it’s well worth the wait. I mean, look:

The cottages aren’t self catering: there are, of course, tea and coffee making facilities, plus a fridge to store things like milk (and, well, WINE…) in, but they are part of the hotel itself, which means that, as well as having your room cleaned every morning, you also have access to the hotel’s restaurant.

This was a real highlight of the stay for us: as I mentioned above, this is a 2 rosette restaurant, where even the children’s menu is a fine-dining experience, with meals made from the finest, locally-sourced ingredients, and served in the hotel’s beautiful dining room. Here’s Max’s fish and mash, for instance:

(And yes, he ate every bite!)

Here’s some more of the dishes we tried:

Crispy hen’s egg

Pithivier

Venison

West Coast brown crab

I also just want to give a quick shout-out here to the best plate of Eggs Benedict I’ve ever tasted in my life:

It’s been over a week now, and I still think about this often. To be fair, we all sampled most of the breakfast menu at Duisdale over the 3 days we were there, and it was all delicious, with Max being a particular fan of the fruit bowl and pancakes:

Speaking of Max, I also have to say a huge thank you to the hotel staff, who were all absolutely fantastic with him (and with all of us, obviously). He’s at an age right now where he wants to chat to everyone he meets, and show them all his various drawings, stickers, etc, and everyone was so kind and patient with him that on the nights we didn’t eat at the hotel (We were out exploring all day, so would often just grab something we were out) he would almost be in tears because he wanted to see his “people” at the hotel. And if that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

I addition to the restaurant, Duisdale House also has a cosy bar, which is well stocked with Skye whisky, and gin from the neighbouring island of Raasay;

Back at the cottage, meanwhile, the highlight for us was that amazing bath tub, which was just the perfect way to end our days out exploring the island:

Speaking of exploring, I’m going to be publishing a full itinerary of our trip soon, so you can see what we got up to each day. For now, I’ll leave you with a few favourite snaps from Skye: and if you’d like to go and see it all for yourself, you’ll find the Duisdale House website here.