Marmalade

After a day exploring the east coast of Skye we took a walk to Marmalade from Portree town centre. After walking through the side entrance we were greeted to a fantastic garden with a number of picnic tables and a bouncing castle for the kids there is such a gorgeous view from the garden and the weather was in our favour. My fiancée ordered our drinks at the bar and the barmaid kindly helped carry out our drinks and was very pleasant. We did not eat but the food did look great. A little gem in Portree.

We stayed two night here on a recent visit to Skye. Our room was quite spacious, which was a welcome change since every other hotel room in the UK seems designed for midgets. You can’t quite walk past each other in most rooms without turning sideways first.
However, this hotel in Portree gave us a great base camp for exploring the rest of the island. The breakfast is complimentary with the room and was superb both mornings. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon one morning and the full Scottish the next. You just have to love some good black pudding!
We ate dinner in the restaurant one night and the food was mostly alright. The fresh mussels were worth shouting about but my choice of a venison burger led to regret. It filled the space but the whole time I was eating it I was wishing I could go back in time and pick something else.
The East European staff members were very hard working and did everything they could to keep all the guests happy, which is no small feat since no two groups of people spoke the same language.
I took one star away since the bar did not stock any Talisker in their single malt selection. I consider this a cardinal sin since Talisker is one of my favorites and it comes from the only distillery on the Isle of Skye. Talk about letting the home team down…

I was sold when I was told they have a bouncy castle in the garden! I was not let down! Fantastic view from the massive garden.
Also ended up having dinner here, food was ok, service was pretty good, nothing overly spectacular.
Getting attacked by midges in the garden put a slight dampener on things but aside from that, it’s pretty good.
There’s a hotel as well but didn’t get to investigate it at all.

I find marmalade a little hit and miss, especially if you go as part of a larger group. I have been as a couple with my husband and enjoyed it, however when I have been with groups from work, etc the service and attention to detail seems to fail a bit. Lovely surrounding tough, it has been tastefully decorated.

Marmalade was a nice hotel. It was very clean and the décor was nice. Nothing special, but nice.
The staff were very friendly and made you feel very welcome. We had dinner in the hotel the first night, bangers and mash and it was really good. Excellent value too. That night we sat in the bar chatting with the locals who were all very friendly and gave us advice as to where to visit on Skye.
The breakfasts were really good and included in the price of the room. You got a choice of the usual cereals and stuff, but then a choice of things like salmon and scrambled eggs or a full Scottish — both were lovely.
My only gripe was that the room was a bit expensive, only a bit. But you can decide for yourself.
All in all, a good hotel for a family or friends. Maybe not so romantic for a couple though.