Auchencairn House: Blue Garden Room

Auchencairn House is situated enviably close to the unique craggy coastline of the Solway Firth. The extensive lawns, which lead from the house, are surrounded by a wall of mature shrubs and rhododendrons providing a sheltered micro climate for the house and gardens while the sea makes its presence constantly felt on the other side. A striking meeting of late Victorian and Georgian architecture, Auchencairn House was originally called Nutwood, and was the main farmhouse to Nutwood Estate. The house is now the private home of Sue and Piet Gilroy, who are offering rooms for B&B and dinner if required over the summer months. The Blue Garden Room benefits from the afternoon and evening sun and stunning views over the walled gardens. This bedroom has a king sized bed, a cast iron free standing roll top bath and wash hand basin as well as a decorative fireplace, a writing desk and tea and coffee making facilities. The blue garden room is spectacular. It is the only bedroom in the house to overlook the walled gardens, and so the bird song is not that of the gulls, but rather the plethora of songbirds which live within the shelter of the garden walls. During your stay you will be able to relax in the library, a room which exudes calm. Oak panels and book shelves line the walls with an impressive and varied selection of books. A huge sandstone fireplace makes a centrepiece in the room, and on colder days and nights roaring fires light up the wood panels of this room giving it a wonderful warmth, and making it the ideal pace to curl up with a book. The dining room at Auchencairn House is quite literally a work of art, with the walls and ceiling hand painted in a beautiful Italianate style. Gilt edged mirrors reflect light from the candles and the chandelier making the whole room glow. This really is a special room in which to enjoy the wonderful local and home grown cuisine. The gardens surrounding the house have been developed over the last 50 years, and are now a heady mix of mature rhododendrons and azeleas, as well as other shrubs and trees which enjoy the shelter created by the rhododendrons and mature trees. You can wander rhe woodland paths, around the pond and down to the beach, as well as round the walled gardens.