What the Papers Say in 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005
National Club Golfer, May 2008
Fit For Royalty, Dan Murphy
"MANY hotels have a golf course within their grounds but only a very select few can boast such a facility for the exclusive use of their guests. One is Cally Palace, located just outside the charming town of Gatehouse of Fleet in the region of Dumfries & Galloway.
"This area of Scotland remains undiscovered by the tourist masses despite its unspoilt coastlines, deserted beaches, great mountains and silent lochs.
" Yet such are the facilities within the grounds of this country mansion that dates back to 1763 that you might well not find the opportunity to explore the surrounding area of the Solway coast and Galloway National Park.
" Pride of place, naturally, has to go to the golf course, an 18-hole layout designed by Tom Macaulay to fit with perfect harmony into an attractive parkland setting. Macaulay's brief here when he built a course that opened some 11 years ago was not to create a 7,500-yard monster.
" That's not to say it's any pushover - far from it - but at around 6,000 yards you won't find yourself needing two woods and a five iron to reach all the par fours. More likely, you'll need to plot your way around to avoid encountering any of the multiple water hazards - including the Cally Lake - that come into play.
"The back nine is probably the more demanding, not least at the long 13th, where the aforementioned lake must be tiptoed around before a tributary of it crosses in front of the green.
"The prospect of being able to pop out for a quick round or nine holes whenever the mood takes you is an extremely appealing one. No societies, no visiting parties and no members' times. Just check with reception that none of your fellow guests have reserved a time and off you go.
"In addition, Cally Palace has its own swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna. On the lawn overlooked by the dining room and drawing rooms is the opportunity for a little croquet, tennis or putting.
"Slightly further afield are a selection of clearly marked woodland walks, ranging from a one-mile stroll to something rather more energetic
"Cally Palace's reputation is based on the classic dining experience it provides. With gentlemen requested to don a jacket and tie, there is an air of old-fashioned formality as couples enjoy aperitifs and canapés in the conservatory.
"With an equal emphasis on fish and game, the menu changes each evening - pheasant and turbot might be highlights one night, duck and monkfish the next. An extensive wine list, naturally, is presented to provide the perfect accompaniment before retiring to the drawing room for coffee and liqueurs.
"It all makes for a supremely relaxing stay in an atmosphere that is all too difficult to find in the 21st century."
ENDS.
Daily Record, March 2008
Feel like royalty at the Cally Palace, Magnus Gardham
"THERE can be few better places for a quiet, relaxing getaway than the beautiful south west of Scotland. Visitors trundle nose to tail on the M6, the M74 and the A82 as they head for the more spectacular west Highlands, or they fly in to explore Edinburgh and Glasgow
"But only a tiny trickle, by comparison, turn off the beaten track and make for the lonely Solway coast and the rolling Galloway hills. It's baffling, because this unspoiled and largely undiscovered part of Scotland has so much to recommend it.
"A cluster of interesting towns and villages lie set in a landscape that is good for walking, great for cycling and, best of all, feels quite empty and utterly peaceful.
"Wigtown is "book town" because of its literary festival and a browser's paradise of second-hand book shops. Kirkcudbright, a favoured haunt for many of Scotland's most famous painters, is "art town". Castle Douglas is "food town" thanks to an amazing range of top-class, independent butchers, bakers and delis along a High Street that has stubbornly and magnificently refused to cloak itself in the retail uniform of the chain stores.
"Newton Stewart is nice, too, though it's not a "something" town. It does have one of the highest ratios of pubs to people anywhere in Scotland but, for whatever reason, the local tourist board have shied away from 'pub town'.
"Gatehouse of Fleet, on the edge of the Galloway Forest, doesn't have a nickname either. If it was down to me, I'd go for "Not Manchester". Like Manchester, it was developed as a cotton town in the 18th century. There were four spinning mills, which turned a hamlet into a village but industrial revolution powerhouse and great Victorian city it never quite became. Today, the dis-similarities with Manchester are striking. It has a quiet main street, a visitor centre in a converted mill and a couple of pubs. Try the fish and chips in the Masonic Arms. We stayed near Gatehouse of Fleet in the four-star country house splendour of the Cally Palace Hotel.
"It is one of the southwest's best-known hotels, a Georgian mansion built in 1763 by the Murray family, who owned the Cally Estate. The imposing house has been a hotel since the 1930s, apart from a spell during the war when it was used as a school for kids evacuated from Glasgow.
"Its great appeal for many guests is the private 18-hole golf course that sprawls around the estate and runs right up to the grand porticoed entrance. No one braved the torrential rain that fell while we were there but guests who had played the course before told me it was "challenging".
"It is certainly picturesque, with views down to the coast in one direction and across to the hills in the other. If golf is not your game, there is also a tennis court and croquet lawn at the hotel. A walled garden, once part of the estate, is nearby and the beach a pleasant two-mile woodland walk away.
"We played table tennis, went for a swim had a sauna, sat in the Jacuzzi and felt pretty smug about life. The feeling continued over dinner. We enjoyed outstanding dishes of locally produced beef, lamb and game - as good anything served in big-name city eateries The service-another real strength here, was friendly and efficient. Dinner, it should be noted, is a formal business. Jackets and ties are obligatory the gentlemen but that seems to be appreciated by the Cally's guests.
"And do not expect cutting-edge decor in the rooms. The emphasis is firmly on the traditional. If you are a complete interior design snob it mightn't be to your taste but most people will feel at home in the spacious and comfortable rooms. Our en-suite bathroom was bigger than many hotel bedrooms I've stayed in and everything worked, too.
"The Cally Palace has been around a long time. It is not afraid to be grand and it is not ashamed to be a little old fashioned."
ENDS.