I’d had my eye on SCHLOSS Roxburghe Golf Resort in Scotland for a number of years. Formerly a manor house dating back to the 1100s, it’s now a luxury hotel and golf resort.
It had been on my radar because it was a beautiful-looking category 4 property in the World of Hyatt program, so it seemed like a perfect place to use our Category 1-4 free night certificates. Unfortunately that’s no longer possible as it’s since moved up to category 5, but it is still bookable with Hyatt points. It’s also bookable through American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts® (FHR) and possibly through equivalent programs from Chase, Citi, Capital One, etc.
Another reason it had been so appealing to me is that it’s now only a two hour drive from where we live in the north of England. Armed with a ton of FHR credits, we booked two stays: a two night stay at the end of August and a six night stay in early October. Shae and I were a little underwhelmed after our first stay, but really enjoyed our second stay.
Here’s a full review of SCHLOSS Roxburghe Golf Resort in Kelso, Scotland.
The hotel is near the fairly small market town of Kelso, population ~7,000. The closest airports are Edinburgh in Scotland and Newcastle in England, both about a 90 minute drive away.
If you’ll be driving up there from England, you might find yourself driving up the A68. That takes you through Northumberland National Park which is a very scenic drive, plus you’ll have the opportunity to stop at the Last Cafe in England before crossing the Scottish border.
I’d ordinarily detail how we booked and how much we paid towards the end of a review. However, with SCHLOSS Roxburghe I feel like it’s better to highlight that upfront as your booking method might greatly impact the type of accommodation you end up in.
If you book directly with Hyatt, a standard room is a 1 King Bed Courtyard room which can cost between 15,000-35,000 points per night. There are at least two standard suites: Castle Suite and a two story Courtyard Duplex Suite. As it’s a category 5 property, those cost between 27,000-47,000 points per night (or a standard number of points if redeeming a Suite Upgrade Award). There’s also at least one type of premium suite: an Estate Suite that can cost between 30,000-50,000 points per night.
Somewhat strangely, the Castle Suite is the largest of all the points-bookable suites at 72 sq m (~775 sq ft). The Courtyard Duplex Suite is 52 sq m (~560 sq ft), while the Estate Suite—which is a premium suite—is “only” 48 sq m (~517 sq ft).
When we booked through Amex FHR a year ago, our options were different. FHR had access to additional room types, with the base room type being a 1 bedroom cottage on the grounds of SCHLOSS Roxburghe, rather than in the manor house itself; there were also 2 bedroom cottages available. The 1 bedroom cottages are—as a rough guesstimate based on its similarity in size to an apartment we used to live in—70 sq m (~750 sq ft). That was perfect for us as it gave us a decent amount of space, was more private, and meant it would be quieter with us traveling with our dog.
The thing is, when running a search while writing this review, those one bedroom cottages weren’t listed on the handful of dates I searched. I don’t know if it was an error that they were listed at the time, or if they’re still bookable through any other luxury hotel program other than FHR, but now the FHR room types appear to be similar to those listed on Hyatt’s website.
For our first stay, we checked in at the main check-in desk in the manor house. The front desk agent was friendly, but despite manually writing my World of Hyatt account number down for her in a couple of places and asking it to be added to our stay, that was never done.
For our second stay, I’d managed to get my account number linked ahead of time (more about that later). Before that second stay, I’d received an email to let me know that if we arrived before 5pm, we should check in at the Kio Kids Club building seeing as we were staying in one of the cottages. We arrived pretty much at check-in time (3pm), so we went straight there and check-in was super-quick.
We received a printed sheet stating what our benefits were as a result of booking via FHR.
That second time we were also advised that we were eligible for additional benefits as a result of having Globalist status with Hyatt. We could get a free round of golf for one person, as well as free golf cart rental; I’m not much of a golfer (Topgolf and mini-golf is the extent of my golfing activity), so we didn’t end up taking them up on this, but I imagine that’d be an excellent benefit for an actual golfer.
We were also advised that we’d get complimentary access to the spa. That was great because access normally costs £95 (~$127) per person per stay, although it’s a bit of a rip-off for non-Globalist guests given the prices they already charge for stays. If you don’t pay that fee, you don’t get access to the pool, fitness room, etc.
If you’re staying in a cottage and want to charge anything to your room, you’ll want to stop by the front desk in the main building at some point. That’s because they’ll have to set you up with what’s effectively a dummy room number in the main building; that’ll be linked to your cottage number and is what will allow you to charge food, drink, etc. to it. Without that, you’ll be advised by the bars and restaurants that you can’t charge anything to your cottage. We weren’t advised of this either time when checking in, so you might well have to proactively inquire about it if staying in a cottage.
The cottages at the hotel have either one or two bedrooms. It seems like the majority have one bedrooms, with two cottages being side-by-side. We never had any issues with hearing other people, despite having neighbors during both stays.
Funnily enough, we were in cottage 316 for our first visit (the left half of the building in the photo below) and in cottage 317 for our second visit (the right half of the building below). There was no difference in the interiors, other than the layouts being mirrored.
The grounds seem to have the cottages set up in an L shape, with two buildings (and thus four cottages) on each plot.
There’s parking near each of the cottages, but if you have a ton of bags with you then you can, in theory, drive your vehicle down that gravel path closer to your cottage in order to unload. We didn’t do that ourselves, but did see other guests doing that.
I don’t know the exact size of the cottages, but they were nice and spacious and were what I’d assume to be about 750 sq ft.
You enter into an area with a rubber mat where you can place muddy footwear (this is Scotland after all), with a wall-mounted coat rack next to it and an umbrella to use during your stay if needed.
The bathroom is off to one side, with the open plan kitchen and living room being straight ahead.
Seeing as it’s a self-catering cottage, there’s a decent-sized fridge, a multi-function oven/microwave, cookware, cooking utensils, plates, silverware, etc. There’s a sink, but no dishwasher. There’s no freezer either; just something to be aware of in case you were planning on rocking up with a bunch of frozen food for the week.
The kitchen island had a lower shelf and a bench, so that serves well as a dining table and/or work area.
There’s a complimentary “minibar” in the cottages waiting for you with a bunch of drinks and snacks. This includes the quintessential Scottish drink: Irn-Bru (pronounced ‘iron brew’).
There was two of everything for our first stay of two nights. I’d assumed at the time that that was the standard minibar offering, but in fact it seems like you get one of everything for each night you stay. That’s because when we arrived for our six night stay, there were six of each item. I’m a sucker for free stuff, so I loved that.
Between the kitchen and living room there was a large cabinet with a coffee and tea station. Inside the tall cupboard was all kinds of drinkware.
The living room had a two-seater sofa (but which could probably fit three people), a coffee table, and ottoman. The TV had a range of channels available; probably 15-20 UK channels, along with about 20 international channels (primarily European, but a few from further afield). A slight downside (for me) was that the TV wasn’t fixed to the wall on a hinge, so it wasn’t possible to access the HDMI and USB ports which meant we couldn’t hook up our Fire TV Stick to watch other stuff.
Out the back of the living room was a small patio area with a table and chairs.
The bedroom had a king bed that we found comfortable and the curtains did a pretty good job at blocking out the light in the morning.
There’s plenty of closet space if you want to properly unpack (I always just live out of my suitcase), along with a luggage rack, safe, and hairdryer.
The bathroom was a good size too, with a walk-in shower that had both a rainfall showerhead and handheld wand. It seems like that region might have hard water as the rainfall showerhead had quite a few blockages on the nozzles. Flicking at each little nozzle cleared the mineral deposits which allowed more water to come through.
The toiletries were Molton Brown and were decent. SCHLOSS Roxburghe doesn’t provide washcloths, so you’ll want to bring one with you if you like to use those when showering.
The bathroom also had a toilet and sink, with a good amount of counter space around the sink.
The installation of the shaving/makeup wall-mounted mirror seemed a little….shaky….in both of the cottages we were in.
Overall, we were extremely pleased with staying in a cottage. While it’s not in the main manor house and so you have to walk to get to the spa, breakfast, etc., it afforded much more space, as well as provided the convenience of having a full kitchen which was particularly helpful for our six night stay.
Breakfast is served daily in Charlie’s restaurant from 7am-10:30am. It’s buffet-style, with the abil