Birchwood Pitlochry

Vegan-Centric Dining: High praise for Michelin-standard vegan cuisine, creative plant-based dishes, and all-vegan toiletries. The 5-course tasting menu and diverse meal options are highlighted as exceptional.

I purchased a voucher for Saorsa for a considerable amount of money that I wanted to use. On 3 October 2025, I contacted the new owner of the hotel, but he refused to honour the voucher even though it is valid until 11 October 2025. When I purchased the voucher, Sandra McLaren-Stewart (the previous owner) assured me that it would be possible "to book a date before the voucher expires—the date does not have to be within the voucher periode" (quote from her email). Regardless, Dean Bucknell, the new owner of what now appears to be a non-vegan hotel, refuses to acknowledge this. If anything, the voucher would have to be used by 11 October. I consider this to be a big disappointment and, at the very least, legally questionable, if not outright fraudulent. Now the new owner is no longer responding to emails. In addition, Facebook messages to Saorsa are being rejected and the comment function is blocked. Unless Sandra McLaren-Stewart or Dean Bucknell contact me as soon as possible with an appropriate solution, I will take legal action.

Yes right, in the midst of all these glorious reviews saying this is the most heavenly place on the planet, a partly negative review - because some of you people will want to know these things. First the good stuff - yes the old Victorian mansion is absolutely gorgeous, environment of the place was peaceful, the young girls hired to do most of the staff work were lovely, and the beds were luxuriously made-up, ensuring first-class sleep. Breakfasts were lovely with ample choices, and delicious. Now, you need to know the following: this is a gourmet vegan kitchen. Do not - repeat do not - go to this place and sign up for the exorbitantly priced dinners, unless you can eat absolutely anything vegan and you have zero additional issues with diet, beyond the fact that you don’t want to eat meat, cheese, dairy etc. Via email they will tell you that they are willing to work with your special diet (mine needs to be lo-fat). But in fact they really have no interest in doing anything but serving the food that they want to serve. Second most important thing for you to know - the Hotel Saorsa, yes as advertised, is only a half mile away from the main Scot Rail line. Which is a long way when you have to walk it with extremely heavy bags. Yet the hotel has no shuttle and will not come and pick you up at the train station. However they don’t really tell you that in advance. So my husband and I arrived in Pitlochry’s little station, expecting to be able to call for a taxi or Uber - only to find out - from the surly, non-compassionate Scot Rail lady - that there was no taxi and there were no Ubers. Granted the hotel was just a short distance away, but we had two 35 pound bags and more heavy carry-on luggage, which made it impossible to make the walk without hurting ourselves. Also there is a steep incline at the end to get up the hill to where the hotel is situated. We would have been stranded at the station, except a local man overheard our plight and offered to give us a lift over to the hotel. Why Saorsa, a fancy inn, does not offer to pick up their guests from the station if needed, makes no business sense to me whatsoever. After managing to get there, worst episode there was the first day - On our first full day there, the owner was not going to be around till late that day. So I never was able to talk to any anybody in charge about my diet needs. Through a confluence of bad management, misinformation and mixed messages, we went ahead and booked a table for what we thought was a low-fat meal which I could eat - then finding out at the last minute that two of the three items on the three course meal were items I had been told by the chef (via a staff member) not to eat because they were high fat. Also there was a mixup about whether or not there was a reservation at all, so we had to get up and leave our table. Yet the owner who had suddenly shown up, insisted that we DID have a reservation…. This all ended up with her losing it and actually yelling a