We just dropped in to Dunkeld/Birnham on our first night in Scotland, as it seemed a characteristic, charming and historic area, without being too twee. Lucky to get a room at the Royal at reduced rates (it was apparently a slow night, in spite of being high season). Very pleasant hotel and room, the bar service was fine, but the food service a bit sloppy as reported by others. Reasonable value though.
Sat by the river and drank wine in the evening (love those long evenings!) - very beautiful.
Overall we really enjoyed it, and thought it was good value.

I booked this over the phone and the young lady who handled the booking was very efficient indeed. Now I am a Scotsman and I often find staying in Scottish hotels to be a strangely depressing ( and expensive) experience. But the Royal Dunkeld Hotel is a very pleasant place to stay. As is usual in these places, they are understaffed and the staff seem permanently rushed off their feet. But they do an excellent job. This hotel has a comfortable old fashioned feel to it, and a general air of "scottishness" which is no doubt helped by the tartan carpets. I'd stay there again without hesitation.

Now for the downside. I was surprised how ROWDY the streets of Dunkeld are at the weekend, or maybe we were just unlucky. But our room was at the front of the hotel, and we were disturbed several times through the night by screaming, swearing and arguing from the street below. None of which is the fault of the hotel, of course. But there does seem to be a culture of excessive drinking in Dunkeld and I would ask for a room to the REAR of the hotel if I could, in future.

PS- remember to ASK for toast at breakfast time. If you don't specifically ask for it, you don't get it. Oh well, it IS a Scottish Hotel I suppose!

I recently stayed at this hotel for one night. It was satisfactory, and would have been much better, had it not been for a coach party. Consequently, we couldn't get served for dinner in the restaurant, so we had to have a bar meal, and we were put out of the way at breakfast, and very nearly forgotten. That said, the bar meal was fairly good, and the selection at breakfast was good. Our room was very nice.

We visited the Royal Dunkeld Hotel in early August 2005. The reception staff were very helpful. We only wanted to stay for one night and were offered one of the lodges, which are just behind the main hotel. These are twin-bedded, but fine for one night and have a shower room, tea and coffee making facilities etc. My main gripe was with the service in the bar and restaurant. The bar service was painfully slow. In the restaurant, we ordered a lasagne with salad and a steak pie with potatoes. We got a lasagne and chips and a steak pie and salad. Unfortunately the waitress then disappeared and did not return for over 20 minutes, by which time both meals were cold, we were disgusted and the evening was somewhat spoiled.

What made up for this was Dunkeld itself. It is a beautiful place and the cathedral setting by the River Tay is wonderful. We will definitely visit again, but will probably not stay at the Royal Dunkeld. I think the problem seems to be that the waiting and bar staff are very young and unsupervised. However, we were advised that the owners of the hotel were away at the time we stayed (a very nice lady on reception was looking after their two wonderful dogs). I wonder if that is why the service was somewhat lacking.