Argyll House Scotland

Argyll House has been described as “probably the best party house in Scotland.” The dining hall seats 28 in style and comfort, and the rest of the house lends itself ideally to big groups for family celebrations, anniversaries, corporate bonding sessions, or anything else.
It’s been pretty luxuriously equipped and nicely furnished, mostly with antiques, but with none of them priceless. So you can relax, and so can any youngsters in your party. Visit Scotland have made 8 visits to this highly celebrated property, and have ranked it right at the very top of their 4 star ranking for excellence every single time.
Argyll House is as luxurious as a boutique hotel, but at a fraction of the cost and without any of the formality of a hotel. There is also the option of being completely self catering if that suits you, or fully catered if you really want to kick back during your stay. It does not have the grandeur or intimidating historic atmosphere of a castle or a stately home proper, but that makes it a very comfortable place to be at home in, even with nearly 30 people.
A river runs through the grounds just 100 yards behind the main house, and shared facilities include the indoor swimming pool and a tennis court (although both of these can be privatised for certain hours in the day).
With the two other renovations now complete, there is space for an even bigger party. The nearby Mill sleeps 20 with a fabulous open plan living area of nearly 1,000 square feet. And The old barn which is also located nearby sleeps 16 in style and comfort. All can be hired together for groups of up to 60. All properties are entirely independent of each other so you maintain privacy.Although just an hour and a half from Glasgow, the house sits in some of the loveliest scenery in Scotland. The Kyles of Bute are renowned with both walkers and sailors as among the most stunning bits of coast in Scotland. Whatever the weather in Argyll, usually remarkably mild, this is great country for site seeing, with every corner revealing a new variation on the theme of mountain, loch, valley, sky, woodland, sea, rock, and beach. The Cowal peninsula is a fabulous base for an active holiday with marvellous wildlife, numerous gardens, other tourist attractions to visit, and a variety of sporting activities.
The house has grounds of 23 acres, and sits about a mile above the head of Loch Riddon, enjoying complete privacy and lovely views down the glen to the river Ruel. The Island of Bute itself is as little as 15 minutes away from the house – accessed via a ferry from Colintraive – and was a “must visit” destination long before Stella McCartney got married there or former racing driver Johnnie Dumfries moved into Mount Stuart House as the new Marquess of Bute.
Inverary with its famous Jail and Castle, seat of Clan Campbell for the last few hundred years, is only 45 minutes away, as is Loch Lomond. Dunoon is another tourist destination in its own right, and it is just under half an hour away. You can get to Glen Coe in an hour and a half; to Stirling, Oban or Fort William in under two. Loch Ness and Edinburgh are easy enough day trips – reachable in less than 2 and a half hours.
As well as general site-seeing and trips to the Island of Bute, Inverary and further afield, there are a host of other activities you can undertake around Glenaruel. It’s fabulous walking country and you will be provided with twelve mountain bikes for those who want to explore on two wheels rather than four. There are some really excellent routes direct from the house, involving all sorts of terrain and levels of strain!
There’s a lovely 9 hole pay and play course ten minutes away above Tighnabruaich. There are five bags of golf clubs for the house and they probably won’t be too fussed about the usual rules regarding golf shoes provided you don’t arrive in jeans and carve the course up. The same applies to the almost equally spectacular nine hole course at Blairmore & Strone, half an hour away. Cowal Golf Club at Dunoon and Inellan are the 18 hole courses in the area that welcome visitors.
For fishing, there are too many options to go into here, but you can spend anything from £9 per day to over £1,000 for river fishing in the area. You can fish for trout in the nearby stream for nothing or in the Lochen at the head of the river. Mackerel on a line in a boat on the Kyles is a right of passage for hundreds of West of Scotland kids every year. They swim in shoals all around these waters and there’s no permit payable.
It’s a fabulous part of the world for water-sports of all sorts. Horse-riding, climbing, canoeing, caving, archery, quad biking, paint-balling, and clay pigeon shooting are also all available either on site or in the area. 
There is a wee shop selling all the basics at the camp-site in the Glendaruel valley, about a mile’s walk away, beside the historic Kilmodan standing stones. You get a slightly bigger choice in the Spar at Tighnabruich five miles away. Dunoon is 16 miles away and is a thriving market / harbour town with award-winning bakeries, cafes and butchers, as well as a big Co-Op and a big Somerfield supermarket.
Scotland is not really well served by pubs in general; this area is definitely an exception. The Glendaruel Hotel is a lovely wee pub, a two mile drive away, and serves good pub grub. The Colintraive Hotel and Tighnabruich Hotel are each a tad busier and a tad more ambitious in terms of menu. Chatters in Dunoon is highly recommended, and the Whistlefield and Coylet Inns on Loch Eck are also worth a visit. Less than half an hour away from the house is a wonderful restaurant on Loch Fyne, overlooking the old Castle Lachlan. The Benmore Gardens tea room is not half bad, either, and the Otterferry Inn and Loch Fyne Oyster Bar have good reputations (on which, it might be said, they trade slightly). All in all, though, there are few areas of Scotland where you can enjoy such a variety of excellent, reasonably priced menus.The house is available on a self-catering or fully-catered basis – or something in between. Most of the weekend parties are for big celebrations – and not everyone wants to take on the task of cooking for 30 of their nearest and dearest. The owners have been able to recruit Roger and Bea McKie (formerly of An Lochan and now co-proprietors of Taste Scotland) as the contracted caterers. From a wedding breakfast for 150, through a formal four course dinner for 24, to a serve it yourself home-cooked fish pie, from a buffet, to a picnic, to a barbecue, they can offer up a menu to suit at a budget that works for you.
When catering a dinner for you, as a one-off, the taste team will always leave you with some delicious  fresh made bread and a vat or two of homemade soup for lunch the next day – along with your left overs. It’s a lovely touch, and effectively means that you’ve got two meals for the price of one! The default setting for the house is still self-catering but if you prefer, then Roger and Bea can work for you as live-in caterers during some or all of your stay. 
They will design a menu or series of menus for you that works to your budget. This could be as little as £9.95 per head for a two course meal from their fresh-cooked serve it yourself “Home Taste” menu – or four or five times that per head if you have a serious langoustine or fois gras habit.
On a live-in basis, you need to budget £175 per day per chef, dropping to £850 for the full week, plus the cost of ingredients. They’ll discuss menu plans with you and then cook you breakfast, provide pack/picnic lunch ingredients and feed children and adults separately in the evening. If the big house is at full capacity and you don’t want any involvement in the prep or clearing up, then you need two members of staff.  If you are talking about a party of under 20 guests, then it may be possible for a single chef to look after your party.
Scarlett Johansen’s personal trainer is going to deliver a series of fun and challenging fitness and weight-loss centred Luxury Boot camps; participants are guaranteed to lose weight or get their money back.
Attend the first ever gourmet golf tours hosted by the PGA Tour and coaching professional Alan Tait in April. The Feast of Golf 2012 is another cracking present and with an all-inclusive price gives golfers rounds at the Carrick, Earl of Mar and Machrahanish Dunes. 
Charles Jamieson MFA is the host-tutor for The Drawing Room, which is a new residential painting and drawing school taking place in March. Charles is a hugely talented and collected painter, as well as an experienced, intuitive and enthusiastic teacher. He has a number of stories, and is a great host. The Drawing Room welcomes amateur artists of all standards. 
The same applies to the new cookery school; the host and tutor of the Feast of Scotland Cookery Courses is Briton’s most successful cookery tutor, as well as being an outstanding chef. His students have won the UK-wide competition for cookery students an unprecedented three years in a row and he has been awarded an MBE as a result. On all these courses, there is a maximum of 16 participants, and the price you pay is an all-inclusive cost including all transfers, all materials, all visits, all food and drink – and all the laughter.
To arrange any of these services, contact Excellence Luxury Villas VIP Concierge Team.