“Warm welcoming and luxury as standard”
As told by Malcolm Mullarkey
“Moving my family, Karen and Georgie (our 18 month old daughter), into Kingsmuir House in January 2004, it was our turn to add our history to the house. We had a vision to save the house and call it our home.
Over an eight-year long programme of works, we started bringing our idea’s to life, with the normal ups and downs of a large restoration and renovation project and plenty of “what have we taken on?” moments! When you’re living in one room for a year and cooking on two camping stoves and a couple of microwaves, the vison does become a little blurry.
We now find ourselves in a the very privileged position of welcoming guests from all over the world to stay and relax in our beautiful home and enjoying the warmth of the very best in Scottish hospitality at our award-winning B&B in Peebles.
When I think back, my journey may have started at an early age, as I like to tell my guests when they ask how I went from working for a financial organisation for 25 years to running a B&B. At 8 years old I went on holiday to Cornwall with my parents. Coming down to breakfast and seeing all of the individual little cereal boxes on offer I knew right then and there I would really like to run a B&B one day.
When we were renovating Kingsmuir House, an opportunity to take voluntary redundancy came up and I went for it. That's when that early plan came into place, albeit without the little cereal boxes!
When we first opened up to guests back in early 2012, we weren’t sure how well bookings would go. To our surprise in the month of May we had surpassed our occupancy target for the whole year. We've been going from strength to strength ever since.
Kingsmuir House has been recognised by several quality industry platforms as a provider of exceptional customer service, picking up regional and national awards is a great honour and gives us the passion to strive and continue for excellence.
Each year we have managed to beat our targets from the year before. It’s a great lifestyle too, meeting new people and welcoming guests from all over the world to our home, and, with my love of cooking - what more could you wish for?
Peebles is a wonderful location for holidays and short breaks, set in the beautiful Tweed Valley, with several local pubs, vibrant cafes and restaurants just a short distance away from the house. We are perfectly located for those who want to relax whilst being a short stroll into Peebles Town Centre and less than an hour from Edinburgh with excellent transport links.
We are very fortunate in Peebles to have such a diverse set of independent shops, such as the award-winning Forsyth’s Butchers and Bakers, (always a queue outside!) an amazing wine merchants, a traditional fruit and veg shop, an Artisan bakers and a Fishmongers… These all go towards providing amazing local quality ingredients for our guests to enjoy. To complement the High Street, we have quality gift card and interior shops, restaurants, wine bars, quality hotels and attractions, Peebles undoubtedly hass one of the best High Streets in Scotland. We even have a Gold Post Box thanks to Equestrian Scott Brash from the 2012 London Olympics.
We work closely with all the local business and always promote these to our guests even before they have arrived. Making table reservations under the Kingsmuir name, promoting local shops (some of which we have negotiated a discount for guests) and ensuring our guests get the best experience possible when visiting the town. The town has a fantastic theatre and arts centre, The Eastgate. A great venue to enjoy all types of shows, musicals, concerts, film screenings and hosts of Peebles Creative festival this year. All on the door step and great to have pre theatre dinner or drinks at one of the nearby restaurants to start your evening.
Prior to the challenges of Covid19, we were focusing our efforts on attracting more international visitors who would normally head towards the lights of Edinburgh or further north. We target these visitors with messaging to say that they can enjoy all of the benefits of the Edinburgh attractions including the Fringe but escape the crowds by staying in Peebles (only 25 miles away) and using the reliable public transport between the two. And once “Fringed” out, we have the stunning Tweed Valley to explore on foot or challenge one of the world class mountain bike trails. Or something a little more relaxing, you can enjoy some chocolates and coffee from the local “world class” renowned Chocolatier, Ruth Hinks of Cocoa Black.
We can offer the best of both worlds to our visitors as we partner up with local companies who offer walking and photography tours across the city and the Borders’ countryside. We have launched a new initiative ‘Making Memories’. For one US couple this meant organising a once-in-a-lifetime experience of fishing on the River Tweed, a classic car to take them to oldest inhabited house in Scotland, Traquair House to meet the Lady of the house for tea, then off in the 1955 Armstrong Sidley classic car back to Kingsmuir House… in their words “awesome”.
This is a window into our journey of welcoming “Our Guests” to Kingsmuir House, the greeting is always relaxed, informal but professional, a very fine line to manage.
Although, I’m front of house, cook, cleaner and everything in between, I could not have done any of this without the support, encouragement and interior design eye of Karen my wife and Georgie our daughter, (aka “my wee helper”, although not so wee now!) without getting all gushy, we are a great team and Karen is most definitely part of the Kingsmuir House success.
Of course we can’t forget the canine internationally renowned Bedlington terriers “Front of House Team”… Morag (Head of security) and rubbish at it, Bramble, (Head of Customer Relations) and amazing at it, and last but not least Agnes (Head of Light Entertainment) getting there slowly, she’s only two!
These three have made a name for themselves and regularly star in online and guest book reviews. (Much to my annoyance, never mind the dogs, what about the Eggs Benedict!)
At the end of the day, it’s all about the guest’s journey, you don’t just meet the standard you endeavour to exceed it. This is what I feel is great Scottish hospitality at its best… Warm, welcoming and luxury as standard.”
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10 Ballifeary Road,Inverness,
IV3 5PJ
07920 404 163
info@beourguestscotland.co.uk