Travel: Kindrochet Lodge

A blend of Victorian architecture and airy, modern conversion, the lodge is ideal for a family reunion, special occasion or hunting, shooting and fishing break, as it sleeps 16 with ease. It has a vast dining table and both a sitting room and drawing room, where you can stretch out after a day's stalking, walking or just sitting on your backside and talking, surrounded by objects that make you feel you've just wandered onto the set of Antiques Roadshow. Which is apposite since the show is filming at Blair Castle, at the centre of the estate, in September.

Wining and dining We cooked for ourselves in the vast bay-windowed kitchen, which is equipped for large parties with a range cooker, two dishwashers and endless cutlery and crockery. In fact, it's so well equipped that there's a map to help you locate everything. The huge cooker is more than a match for any venison or birds you might bring back from a day's shooting on the hills, but with teenagers to feed we stuck to heating up pizzas we'd caught earlier. In summer you could have a barbecue with the equipment provided, midgies notwithstanding. The Tilt Stores (01796 481206, [email protected]), in Blair Atholl, offers a grocery delivery service.

Room service Our testers declared the Bedknobs and Broomsticks brass bed in one of the front bedrooms to be the bounciest – and, believe me, they tried them all. Tastefully styled in a traditional, luxurious manner, the three double and five twin bedrooms are decorated to a high standard, yet are still cosy and welcoming. All rooms also have great views as well as en-suites or bathrooms right next door – one even has its own free-standing roll-top tub, which was a perfect spot from which to luxuriate in the steam and watch snow falling gently on the birches outside.

Worth getting out of bed for There's the castle and gardens at Blair Atholl, four miles away, where there will be hunting, rolling and painting of eggs at Easter, or the House of Bruar, for a shopping fix, and Blair Atholl village, Pitlochry and the attractions of Perth, 40 minutes away, but we couldn't shift our teenagers from the delights of the lodge itself. Once you're here you don't need to go anywhere else, as there are countless walks right outside the front door, and sitting rooms, drawing rooms and kitchens in which to keep cosy and chat. On a bright, frosty Sunday morning, we walked through the grounds and up the rise at the back for an hour's constitutional with spectacular views of snow-covered hills emerging above the treeline like giant meringues.

Land Rover tours leave from the castle every Saturday morning, and include a stop-off for hot refreshments at a bothy or out on the hill, while a ranger service provides activities and information. Blair Castle (01796 481207, www.blair-castle.co.uk) and grounds are open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm until 29 October. Admission to the gardens is free, but entry to the castle costs 6.75/5.85 for adults, 3.95 for children. For Land Rover tours, call the estate office (01796 481355), Blair Castle Caravan Park (01796 481263) or the castle (as above).

Budget or boutique? It's a country house straight out of central casting, yet despite being a cut above, isn't afraid to work with children and animals. The decor also has a touch of the boutique hotel about it in the en-suites and kitchen. Our five children of various ages loved the snooker room, the sitting room, with its TV, DVD and cosy coal fire, and the vast lawns, on which they played rounders and non-stop cricket – non-stop. Places that welcome dogs are few and far between, but Kindrochet even has a kennel in the garden. Not that Archie the Border terrier was going anywhere near it. Luckily for him, well-behaved hounds are allowed downstairs in the house, and he secured a much more comfortable spot in front of the hearty fire in the sitting room, reclining as if to the manor born.

Hidden extras There are boot rooms, drying rooms and gun rooms (thankfully locked when we visited), while the house is kept spotless by Marilyn and her daughter Karen, for whom nothing was too much trouble. They will also come and cater for your party, should you require it, and Karen is a fund of knowledge about the house, the estate and its history.

Guestbook comments? It's a perfect place to get away from it all with all your favourite people. Kindrochet Lodge, Atholl Estates, Blair Atholl, Perthshire (01796 481355, www.athollestateslodges.co.uk). From 26 June, a three-night break costs 1,617 (70 per cent of weekly rate).

This Article was first published in Scotland on Sunday, March 28, 2010