Dalvorar - Mar Lodge Estate

We had a fantastic week staying at Dalvorar in Mar Lodge.

The lodge itself is magnificent and the surrounding countryside awe inspiring. I know the area well having grown up nearby. It is wonderful to see the lodge and estate being so well looked after - and the positive effects of the trusts management on the increase in tree cover.

Having worked in the Mar Lodge apartments when they first opened in 1998 it was great to be able to come up and stay in my favourite apartment as a guest.

The apartment is extremely comfortable, the sitting room was always my favourite with the curved bookcase and sat there in the evenings and relaxed looking out onto the lawns at front of lodge. The kitchen is very well equipped with everything you might need for your holiday. The bedrooms are comfortable too and decorated to a high standard. We did lots of walks on the estate and explored the villages. The apartment and the lodge were very clean, welcoming and had everything we needed for our holiday. Braemar is a place we come to regularly as we have family staying but it was lovely being able to come back to our luxurious apartment after visiting instead of going home. Hope to return soon. Thank you to the team at Mar Lodge we had a wonderful relaxing holiday.

Another wonderful stay at Mar Lodge, first time we've stayed in Dalvorar.

Beautiful apartment, we intend to return soon, we love the area and accomodation so much

We had a large family group for Christmas over 3 of the properties, including the large one, Bynack.

Not our first time so we are obviously very happy with the property and location!! The staff are very helpful (Dorota and Michal especially on this visit). The location is brilliant for family members of all ages - fantastic walking. No snow this visit for sledging and igloo building!

Property presented as better than the photographs.

Lovely spacious rooms with interesting decor. The kitchen was very well equipped and great space for eating and relaxing in. Both bedrooms were very spacious and ovely. The living room also very spacious but the sofa and armchairs were not very comfortable. A few footstools would have helped. There was no hairdryer! We loved the location and the overall ambience. A real honour to stay in such an iconic location.

A very comfortable apartment in beautiful settings

This 2 bedroom apartment within Mar Lodge has great character and gives you the feeling of staying somewhere really grand.

The apartment was very clean and reasonably well equipped. Our only criticism is the lighting which was very dull in most of the rooms.

A wonderful stay.

Quirky décor that grew on us. Thank you!

It was a great break, the location was perfect.

But what happened to the Snow? I suppose we will have to wait until next year!! The quality of the accommodation was excellent. Specifically the quality of the beds and their linen was 5 star and so important when the weather outside was -10c, and we sleep with the windows open.The library sitting room was an added bonus. The Mar Estate grounds and space, the river Dee on its boundary. A quick hop and skip to (Cairngorm's) Lairig Ghru. What more could you ask for? Ho, I forgot the staff! They know their jobs and don't they execute really well. Thank you.

We've stayed in Dalvorar many times over the last 10 years, always loved it, hence regularly returning.

However it has been redecorated and refurbished, and we really didn't like it. The biggest bed now takes all the space in the smallest bedroom. The biggest bedroom has terrible wallpaper and superfluous canopies over the bed. The living room has awful murals over all the walls and is dark and dingy night and day. The light is not good enough to read in there. There was some beautiful furniture with mirrors that made it feel much lighter before, also a nice footstool come games table which was lovely to use. The bathroom has a weird plain yellow "picture" and what you might call naive painting all over the bath. The kitchen revamp is good although you have to be 6 foot to reach most cupboard space. Why you have put plastic flowers and a plastic lemon tree in there I really don't know. We won't be staying in Dalvorar again and I see from the website that the other apartments have been redecorated in a far more sympathetic fashion. We love Mar lodge but don't like what has been done to Dalvorar.

We had another great stay, only made this four star as we really were not taken with the new decor which seemed out of keeping with an Victorian shooting lodge.

Putting a double bed in the middle of a room seemed very odd; and why fill the flat with plastic flowers? Apart from that we had another wonderful time and the staff and accomodation were otherwise first class

Lovely staff & an amazing place to stay.

Very good kitchen setup & untensils. The window catch in the main bedroom was missing & as the balcony had limited opening it was quite stuffy due to the broken. An incredible place to stay.

With regards our stay at Dalvorar : 1.

There was no hot water from the bath/shower on our first day. After numerous requests (most staff had returned home after check in time) a handyman did attend on the second day and switched off a limiter under the bath which rectified the problem. 2. The bedroom used by my wife and I was not cleaned correctly and a sanitary towel has been left under the bed. 3. The photos provided by yourselves when we booked the property did not reflect the extensive refit changes made. Whilst the kitchen and toilets were sympathetically upgraded the bedrooms and sitting room were very different. Changing the decor from understated Hunting Lodge to Fairytale Castle/Paint by numbers could only be for the wedding market and not for clients who have been visiting Mar Lodge for over 25 years. 4. In the kitchen the large plastic trees (orange and lemon) in the kitchen do not really back up your eco stance. The overhanging artificial plants are a fire hazard. At a cost of over £200 per night I see no reason to return.

This was the second consecutive year we stayed at Mar Lodge and again very much enjoyed the piece and quiet during our stay.

We appreciated the warmth of the apartment when returning from a wet and windy walk. We did wonder on the safety of having a shower as the plastic curtain could be a little constricted and clingy. Also the bath hot water not hot enough to have a bath and not as hot as in the two hand basins or the sink in the kitchen.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to feed back my disappointment with my recent stay at the Dalvorar flat in Mar Lodge.

I would very much like my feedback forwarded to the NTS, which owns and manages the flat, and to receive a reply. Two points. One, the brass edging on the carpeted trap door (for underfloor heating perhaps?) in the living room was loose and thus both a trip hazard and rather sharp -- a potential bare-foot-cutting hazard too. We put a book on top of it while we were there but it needs to be repaired. Secondly, the thing that really spoilt my holiday: polyester in the sheets in a super-expensive top-of-the-range holiday let, really? I have always struggled to sleep in bedding that isn't 100 per cent cotton or linen and often travel with my own sheet -- but I didn't this time because I just assumed the bedding at Mar Lodge would be fine, given how much the rent was (cheap-and-nasty bedding is usually more of a problem at the cheaper end of the market). The problem -- quite a common one -- is that the bedding overheats in hot weather and gets clammy, which is what happened to me last week. I had broken sleep for four nights out of a seven-night stay and it spoilt my holiday and made me really quite angry. While stripping the beds as requested at the end of our stay I found a label that said sheets were 50 per cent polyester, 50 per cent cotton -- this is less cotton than you get in a bed at Travelodge. It's really, really shocking in a place that presents itself as so grand, supposedly, and charges so much. I'd like to hear an explanation as to why the NTS thinks 50-50 poly cotton sheets are ok. My husband also points out that now global warming is heating up even the Scottish summer, other places we've stayed now have electric fans in bedrooms as standard, and suggests the NTS does this at its properties too.

It was all just wonderful except the shower.

The place was amazingly clean with spacious rooms, furnished beautifully and all had amazing views. The estate itself was a haven of beauty! The shower though was over a very high side Victorian bath with mixer taps and long shower curtains. Getting in and out the shower was difficult for short legs and there was no hand rail. The mixer taps were difficult to use to get a comfortable temperature once in the shower, as very low done. If water was too hot or too cold there was no room for manoeuvre in the shower. Shower curtain too long and got trapped under shower mat and in own feet making things a bit slippy. There was nowhere in the shower to put toiletries as bath tray (if used) left a gap in the curtains which then flooded floor. Note also there are no lifts in the building if you were relying on them. Not an issue for fit and healthy people just means a few trips up the stairs with luggage. Everything else was just brilliant though! Well worth a visit!

Gorgeous place, wonderful setting.

Beautiful old-fashioned apartment but with all the facilities required. A joy!!

Mar Lodge is a wonderful place to stay especially if you value tranquility and outdoor activities.

Very happy staying at Mar Lodge, definitely a favourite, we will be back again.

a wonderful holiday apartment.

...my only (small) gripe is the shortage of cooking pans - I brought some of my own this year as I remembered from my last visit. Also kitchen knives are nearly all blunt. But a great place to have a walking holiday, and the Mar lodge estate is gorgeous.

A very special place to stay.

"Must have" a grab rail in the bathroom as the bath is beautiful but high-sided. Repairs to the gutters and downpipes as the rain was cascading down into the foundations. "Nice to have" full length mirrors in the bedrooms plus a new shower curtain in the bathroom as the current ones have an unpleasant smell.

This was one of the best properties we have been lucky to stay at.

Simply breathtaking.

A beautiful location and property.

The apartment was very comfortable. Lovely walks on the doorstep for us and the dogs. Difficult to find places to eat as everywhere was bokked up. Being placed in a first floor apartment with no lifts was an issue for bringing up the luggage and not convenient with two dogs, sadly this was not made clear when booking There was no welcome pack which we thought was appalling considering the high cost of the accomodation, tea bags but no milk. We have stayed in smaller places with fantastic welcome packs.

What a memorable holiday.

Scotland at its best.

Very comfortable apartment in a lovely old lodge.

We thought it might be cold given the location and type of property, but we couldn't be more wrong! Very cosy (possibly too warm in the bedrooms!) and well kitted out. Great for dog walkers as the four-legged friends are allowed too.

Flat is comfortable.

Heating variable either too hot or too cold and adjustment has to go through staff so cumbersome although staff very attentive. Flats position not really great for dogs since it’s so far from outside and fire doors are very heavy. Radio reception poor

Very much enjoyed it, but there were two things that would have made a difference.

...an extra small cooking pan in the kitchen would have made self catering much easier, and a good reading light ( maybe a better bulb in the standard lamp, or an extra standard lamp) so that we could both be able to read in the living room in the evening.

Having visited Mar Lodge over 40 years ago, I was delighted to see that accommodation was now available.

We weren't disappointed. We loved our week's holiday and will, definitely be back. During our stay there were some very stormy weather but when Braemar was experiencing power cuts, the Mar lodge generator kicked in and all was well. A special thanks to the Mar Estate staff for dealing with the many fallen trees and keeping the walking trails open. Also thanks to all the housekeeping staff who were excellent. What a wonderful job the estate is doing with forest regeneration!

What a great experience!

Wonderful location, fascinating history (tour recommended) and fantastic walking from the door. We loved our few days at Mar Lodge and would definitely recommend it.

Having teenage boys it would have been 110% if a swimming pool was on site.

Apart from that we thoroughly enjoyed the holiday.