#INVITED
I’m not a total stranger to luxury, I’m like a pen-pal to it.
I get communication from the luxurious places – photos and updates of the goings on, and only very rarely do I get to physically meet up. But it’s rarely, not never!
Turnberry is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit. I remember in the early days of passing my driving text when I was excitedly driving everywhere, I ended up passing by and thinking ‘I must go there!’
So; several years, one and a half makeovers and two takeovers later: This was my experience of seeing Turnberry once and for all!
Driving up the hill into the grounds is so exciting when you have such a grand building facing you. We were just so excited! The weather was rotten on the day we arrived so I borrowed this photo.
Even the car park is amazing with this stunning fountain roundabout. We were greeted at the door by a lovely chap in full kilt attire who took our bags and had them sent straight up to our room. I absolutely love a kilted man. We then checked in and went for a seat in the bar.
This lounge area is just beautiful. Stunning views out of beautiful big windows – you can look out over the golf course, the lighthouse and see the islands of Ailsa Craig and Arran. The atmosphere was set to perfection by the very talented girl on the harp. It was love at first sight for both of us.
We took a tour around the building and gained some insight on the place – I was very curious as I hadn’t visited prior to it’s controversial takeover or its big makeover.
All politics aside: Turnberry is a beautiful Scottish building on beautiful scottish land and it showcases many, many things that make the Scottish hospitality and tourism industry great. I think the take over has worked wonders for this historic building.
I’ll summarise what we learned:
- It opened in 1906 – this is where the name of the restaurant comes from.
- It was used as a hospital during the war and the landing strips are still preserved on the land.
- A middle eastern company owned it previously, and they didn’t manage 60% of the renovations before they had to sell to the Trumps.
- £200m was pledged to completely flip the place – it was closed for a year to carry out the bulk of this. Currently it’s just the spa waiting to be redone.
You can see that money was spent. From the carpets to the chandeliers – opulence was evident. I’ve heard some people criticise this, but I really do think it’s stunning. I truly was astounded by how gorgeous everything was.
We arrived to our room to a hand written note from the manager welcoming us to our stay, and a little chocolate fondue set out for us. I thought it was a lovely touch!
The lovely kilted man escorted us to our room – luckily he asked our room number as it turned out that we’d read it wrong and would’ve been looking for a room that doesn’t exist!
Our room was on the corner of the front of the building and the views were fantastic. I’m only gutted that the weather wasn’t up to much and I didn’t get the clear sea view or the sunset I was dreaming of!
Maybe next time!
Sheer happiness. The bed was so comfortable I could weep thinking about it.
I dragged myself out of that gorgeous marshmallow bed, attempted to make my appearance better and we headed down to dinner. We were given some glasses of Trump’s own champagne. It was decent!
Take a read of my restaurant review of the 1907 restaurant here. The comment section is also worth a read if you’re questioning why I’m featuring a venue owned by Trump.
After dinner and a few (more) drinks in the bar, we retired to our room. We both agreed that one night isn’t enough here!
The bathroom was all marble, and the bath tub is HUGE! A glorious tub!
After an evening of sheer indulgence it was time to turn into bed. That wonderful, marshmallow haven.
Happy as a clam.
Ok this isn’t attractive. But it was perfection on the taste front. Since my scrambled eggs in Berlin – see them here – I just can’t get enough scrambled egg! What I had here was toasted brioche topped with scrambled egg and smoked salmon. With a cup of tea – oh it was magic!
My other half ordered kippers with lemon. Such a simple dish but very fulfilling as it was light, fresh and packing tons of flavour.
We then ventured to the spa to sit in the jacuzzi, sauna and play in the pool like children.
We then took a pit stop in the form of a sparkling afternoon tea in the Grand Tea Lounge & Bar. The blog post about that can be found here. It was delightful.
This was a lovely view to drink tea and eat cake to!
This is my final blog post about my stay at Turnberry. I would genuinely visit there and enjoy their hospitality time and time again. As I said: scottish land, building, people and food. All executed wonderfully!
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Turnberry, Ayrshire, Scotland, KA26 9LT
01655 331000
@TrumpTurnberry
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The Plate Escapes 