Mansfield Castle Hotel

Really recommend this gorgeous castle hotel; friendly staff and lovely rooms. Cosy sitting spaces and bar nestled in green treed gardens. The bay windows look out on the grounds with local walks along the Dornoch Firth waterway Tain village is charming too.

I had booked this hotel for my husbands birthday because it looked quite fancy on the picture. Sadly the picture was the only fancy thing about it. As we went up the drive it was hard not to notice how neglected the drive and garden looked. My husband went in to check us in and came out and said I should go in and see for myself. A gentleman was doing some work in the reception area and there was some broken glass and also open stanley knife blades lying around. The woman on reception was dressed so inappropriately for a receptionist, so unprofessional in a tight white leather look mini skirt. We were also informed that breakfast would be continental and that if we wanted a hot breakfast we could go down to their sister hotel for it. She also only really seemed interested in taking the money, gave us the key and with no instruction on where the room was left us to find our way, well that was certainly a challenge. We went upstairs downstairs, along corridors. Eventually I found our room, the corridor was so dark that I had to put the torch on my mobile phone to be able to see the numbers on the doors. The room itself wasn't too bad, spacious and basic, however we decided to go and ask for another room as my husband has sight and back issues and would not have been able to go up and down to that room. On asking at reception we were told we could have another, closer room if we paid another £60, we were not prepared to do this and asked about cancelling. At this point we were then told that she would contact their 'sister' hotel down the road. We were given a room there instead and were quite happy to leave.

This would actually be a review of the Morangie Hotel in Tain. We were informed just a few weeks before our trip that they have repairs that needed to be done in the Mansfield hotel and that they transferred us to another hotel without an offer of a refund. The Morangie Hotel was a nice looking manor and had lovely stag head and Jacobite sword memerobilia. However shrouded in tacky halloween decorations and buckets laid about to catch leaks around the hotel. It wasn’t the stay we were expecting.

Despite being asked for a refund, they still transferred us to the "Morangie Hotel Tain" which is nothing more than an old house. That "hotel" had such a strong smell of carpet clue or some other cleaning chemicals that it triggered an asthma attack and we needed to leave urgently. We were unable to stay at that hotel and had to travel all the way to Dornoch at 11:00pm in order to stay at another hotel so we had to pay for another hotel. We need a refund for our stay and until we receive one, this review will remain here and other sites. I wish the castle had handled the situation better, but they did not.

Please people please do not go near this excuse off a hotel r his other 1 called morangie house tain both r vile they disgusting no running water hot r cold toilets dont flush and rooms r rotten.com honestly this mans both hotels r skips ud b better sleeping at the closest bus shelter take my advice 👍👍

Pros: - Location; easy walking distance to the town of Tain - Ample parking in the gravel/grass area out front of the hotel - Pleasant staff; everyone smiled and tried to be helpful - Good internet (in our room it was very strong, not so good in other rooms per our traveling companions) - Breakfast; buffet and made-to-order eggs, etc. ample and well prepared - Dining room/dinner; well-prepared entrees with a nice menu - Hotel bar; small, quaint, cozy, and friendly Cons: - Very old hotel, much in need of a facelift/refresh throughout although it had lots of "character" and very beautiful woodwork throughout - Room: - Bathroom dirty (extensive mold/mildew on shower walls in tile grout (dark black lines visible as soon as you enter the bathroom)), open joints and cracks in the wall at floor baseboard and bottom of the tub; sink had several hairline cracks - beware of hot water at scalding temps from all taps - Room only set up for single occupancy when reserved for a couple (towels, service items, etc. missing for second person) - Bed had a very hard mattress, very hard and unpadded - Problem at check-in: - We made our reservation through *********** on April 12th for our September stay, and paid fully in advance on Aug 20th, upon arrival we were advised our reservation had been canceled on June 20th (but our full payment was processed by *********** on 8/20!!???), finally they "found" us a room for our 3-day stay, later advised "they had found the problem that caused this misunderstanding" (we experienced a very tense time when we were waiting to see if we would even have a room after we arrived at the end of a full day of air and car travel from the US!) - Housekeeping was fairly non-existent, the room was not cleaned at all during our stay, had to hunt down staff to get towels, etc. when needed (to be fair, we were advised at check-in that housekeeping would be only on request???). - Hallway smoke doors were kept closed constantly (probably a good practice given the age of the building) and hall lights were often turned off in the early evening making the hall to our room very dark to traverse by the light from hall windows only; yes energy conservation is important, but not by turning out lights when guests are still using hallways, etc. Overall we were disappointed in the poor cleanliness of our room and the poor preparation for our use of the room (towels, etc. missing); although some of these are little things that were corrected on request, it was the sum of the issues that made it particularly unsatisfactory especially considering that the rooms were not inexpensive. The staff there were universally friendly and pleasant, really nice people ! We very much wanted to love the place, but we have to be honest in our review for those like us who may be considering a stay in the future.

Lovely big hotel , staff were amazing , food amazing . Had a very creaky bed every time i moved in it the noise was crazy 😄 . Could dowith a little up dating , lamps and fridges , but none the less it was an old hotel , so authentic . A little expensive for what we got to be honest , but would i go back , most definitely 😊.

This Hotel is not as described in their website, misleading to say the least and a total con. This was the most expensive accommodation we paid for during our NC500 trip and by far the worst........a rip off to the point that we never stayed! As we were leaving, I asked the owner about a refund, who replied we’d need to request it through ***********. Tried that and tried contacting him since to no avail which I suspected would be the case. It's not the money but the principle being potential hotel guests need to be made aware! Attitude of the staff complaining about foreign guests and having to be there for cover from their sister hotel in Tain…..very unprofessional. Turned out the guests were complaining about the heating in their rooms not working, not an unreasonable request which seemed to annoy the staff. Again, shocking and completely unprofessional to discuss this with other guests! On arrival we were told there was no food tonight although advertised it had a restaurant. Please see a few images of the room we were offered particularly the bathroom, not including the two abandoned cars in the car park. The room was musty, bathroom dirty, bath panel cracked, sealant hanging off, dirty sink and lots of mould....truly disgusting. Walking through the hotel to the room, there was also unpleasant smell about the place. Walked into the bar area and noticed the smell of stale alcohol…..horrible. It's the first time I've refused to stay anywhere, it was truly shocking! Hotel in dire need of a complete refurbishment. Owner hasn't a clue, you have been warned!!

We were at the Morangie Hotel not the Mansfield Castle due to plumbing issues.