The Bracken Hide hotel review: A smart yet flawed retreat on the Isle of Skye

This new Isle of Skye hotel has Highland views to savour and sleek design credentials but improvements may be required, as Benjamin Salmon discovers

The main building is perched on a hilltop with soaring sea views across to the neighbouring Isle of Raasay (The Bracken Hide Hotel)

In a nutshell: This stylish new opening is centrally located on the beautiful Isle of Skye, with trendy cabin rooms and a gorgeous main building. However, the fashionable look is papering over some obvious teething problems.

The location

The Isle of Skye really is as beautiful as the pictures all over your Instagram feed would suggest. Towering peaks hold court around vast bays and ethereal moorland. The Bracken Hide sits in a superb position on the edge of the island’s main (and only) town of Portree, where guests can walk a leisurely 20 minutes from the hotel to all of the town’s restaurants, pubs, cafés and shops. Despite its proximity, The Bracken Hide acts as a retreat away from the tourist honeypot that is Portree. Perched on a slight elevation above the town, one view from the hotel faces the barren hills inland, while the other looks out onto Loch Portree and, further afield, to rolling hills on the neighbouring island of Raasay.

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Skye is a large island with lots to see and a car is recommended, but the Bracken Hide’s central location results in shorter journey times to the must-go attractions. By car, the ancient volcanic landscape of the Quiraing is 40 minutes away, while the jagged rock formation of the Old Man of Storr is less than 20. Skye can be reached by car from the Scottish mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh over the Skye Bridge, itself a two-hour drive from Fort William or four hours from Glasgow. Alternatively, both vehicle and foot passengers can take a 25-minute ferry from Mallaig, a port town reachable by an incredibly scenic 90-minute train journey from Fort William.

The Bracken Hide cabins benefit from stellar views (The Bracken Hide)

The look

The centrepiece of the hotel is the extraordinary main building containing the lobby, restaurant and whisky bar with the cabin-style rooms set separately. Built like a curved wooden box and plonked on top of a hill, it looks as if modernist Scandi-chic and traditional Scottish style had a baby. Stepping through the front doors into the lobby, visitors are presented with huge floor-to-ceiling windows below a soaring asymmetric vaulted ceiling presenting views of the bay below. The reception desk is hidden, allowing for more space for guests to relax into soft furnishings and admire the Highland scenery through the windows. Armchairs and sofas upholstered with wool and leather create a space that, despite the vastness of the building’s interior, feels altogether cosy.

The lobby’s floor-to-ceiling windows perfectly frame Loch Portree and the Sound of Raasay (Benjamin Salmon)

The restaurant, Fraser’s, shares the same vast space, with an abundance of natural light flowing through the windows. Soft brown hues of matted pinewood walls and straw light shades are offset by ocean blue coloured plates and verdant green bursts of well-kept plants lined along the walls. Low-key alcove seating and the inclusion of teal-coloured wall tiles framing a semi-open kitchen create a space with the feel of a Los Angeles beachfront cafe. It is a genuinely beautiful backdrop to the dining experience.

Outside the main building, the lack of vegetation and rows of bare flower beds make the property feel somewhat desolate. Rooms come in the form of 45 cabins dotted around the hillside and, while cosy inside,they’re not particularly beautiful to look at. With over £8m spent over six years to build the hotel, a few trees and bushes to make the place feel more established wouldn’t have gone amiss. It should also be noted that at the time of visiting in June 2023, the hotel was unfinished, with building work ongoing. This detracted from the hotel’s get-away-from-it-all offering and prompted thoughts that it perhaps wasn’t quite ready for opening yet.

Bed and bath

The cabins are stylish if snug affairs, with high-quality bedding, Harris tweed headboards and burnt wood panelling. Each cabin has a tea station with a kettle, tea, coffee, hot chocolate and shortbreads (which unfortunately were not replenished during my visit), two decent-sized wardrobes and a smart yet very small en-suite bathroom. Size does matter when the door to the bathroom hits the sink on opening, forcing guests to shimmy themselves around when they want to take a shower. Similarly, a lack of space for toiletries and shower doors that don’t properly close add to an overall theme of style over substance. Thankfully, each cabin has an outside deck with chairs to enjoy the bewitching views over Skye.

Food and drink

The food at dinner was spectacular – some of the best I’ve ever eaten in Scotland – showcasing the best of modern British cuisine. A starter of pan-seared pigeon breast with black pudding and apple offered unexpected flavour combinations; the fillet steak and summer vegetables main coupled bold umami hits with tender, buttery meat. The restaurant rightly and proudly touts its locally sourced ingredients. The beef, all Highland, is bought from a local butcher only 20 miles away in Kyle of Lochalsh, while the venison and lamb are all reared on the Isle of Skye itself. Vegetables and mushrooms are grown on the island and seafood is sourced from local ports.

Fraser’s at the Bracken Hide produces some stand-out cooking in fashionable, unstuffy dining room (The Bracken Hide)

Unfortunately, this is where the superlatives end. The restaurant itself is a separate entity from the hotel and communication doesn’t extend between the front desk and the maître d’. Breakfast was a disappointing affair; a four-star hotel should be offering more than a cold buffet breakfast of simple pastries, meats and cheeses. There was a lack of care too, with cling film left on the plates of cold cuts, bread still inside the plastic it was bought in and juice left unreplenished.

Much of the cold breakfast buffet was still wrapped in plastic, including the cheese and meat platters (Benjamin Salmon)

Other than that offered by the restaurant manager, service at both dinner and breakfast was particularly poor. Finding staff in the Scottish Hebrides is notoriously difficult due to the remote location, made harder by post-Brexit immigration rules. However, it was basic service training which was lacking. During dinner, we had to ask to order wine three times before it eventually arrived after the starters.

Service was brusque at breakfast too. Hot drinks weren’t offered, requiring guests to ask themselves. Considering the price point, many guests in the hotel at the time of visiting shared our disappointment.

That said, the staff in the Whisky Hide Bar, located in the main building, were delightful. Friendly and knowledgeable, they offered insight into the extensive whisky selection without erring towards know-it-all territory. Design-wise, minimalism was swapped for black-painted walls, interspersed with gold finishes on the shelves. Squint and you could be in Dubai, rather than the Inner Hebrides.

The hotel’s Whisky Hide Bar brings a London cocktail bar vibe to the Highlands (Benjamin Salmon)

Pools, spas and public areas

Guests can find a lounge area with comfortable and cosy seating in the extraordinary main building. There is also a mezzanine lounge area, which contains a large television and lay-flat seating for movie nights. The Bracken Hide also has Estonian saunas, a plunge pool with views of the bay, open daily from 4-8 pm. There is ample parking for visitors, though be aware that this is at the bottom of quite a steep hill – the walk up may not be suitable for some.

The hotel has two Estonian-style saunas as well as a plunge pool (The Bracken Hide Hotel)

The hotel is also let down by some poor logistical design. For example, there is nowhere for staff to take their breaks, meaning it is common to see them smoking next to the hotel entrance. Furthermore, the first things guests see before they enter the main building are messy window ledges inside the restaurant kitchen filled with kitchen appliances unceremoniously stacked on top of one another.

Used items stacked in windows greet guests on first entering the hotel (Benjamin Salmon)

Nuts and bolts

Room count: 45 cabins.

Freebies: A tea station with coffee and shortbread biscuits.

In the bathroom: All cabins have basic toiletries including sea kelp shampoo, hand soap and shower gel from the ever-popular Scottish Fine Soaps.

Wifi: Yes: but the connection hardly extended to some of the cabins.

Extra charges: Hot breakfast.

Disability access: Some cabins are reserved for those with mobility needs and the hotel explains extensively on its website how accessible different cabins are. However, there is no wheelchair access as each cabin has steps going up to the front door.

Pet policy: Two dogs are allowed in cabins for £20 per night and they must remain on a lead when in the hotel grounds.

Bottom line

Best thing: Beautiful design: the main building is a real showstopper.

Worst thing: The guest experience. Most staff are friendly but the lack of care is often apparent. The grounds were not ready at the time of our visit; it would have been beneficial to put off opening until the full experience was up to scratch.

Perfect for: People seeking stylish surroundings in a prime location.

Not right for: Those who want value for money and good service.

Instagram from: The main lobby entrance, where huge windows frame an iconic view of the Highlands.

Price: Rates at The Bracken Hide start at £140 based on two sharing a small cabin, including a limited cold breakfast. This increases considerably in the height of summer.

Since this reviewer stayed at The Bracken Hide, management want to make it known that the Hotel is under new ownership.

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