Beach nearby

Reviews of Northern Sands Hotel

3 out of 5
Northern Sands Hotel
Dunnet, Dunnet Head, Thurso, Scotland

Reviews

9.4

Exceptional

Rating 10 - Excellent. 88 out of 123 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 31 out of 123 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 2 out of 123 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 2 out of 123 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 0 out of 123 reviews" "

9.6/10

Cleanliness

9.6/10

Staff & service

9.4/10

Amenities

9.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

8.8/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Russell

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Immaculate property which is well presented and cared for. I didn’t frequent the bar, but eveything is well catered for. The highlight is undoubtedly the friendliness of the staff, all of whom are a credit to the Scottish Tourist industry who all went above and beyond to ensure I had a pleasant visit, including a free room upgrade as they had larger rooms available. Would happily stay again.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Patrick

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Perfect place to stay to visit the end of mainland UK. The food was great and they catered well for my coeliac wife and fussy children. All the staff are lovely with Jo in particular making our 2 x breakfast times brilliant, laid out ready for us both days and recommended us a great hike. Thanks again, thoroughly recommended.
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2024
Response from Jo on Feb 18, 2024
Thank you so much for your kind words, so glad you enjoyed your stay and your hike! It was lovely to have you and your family stay with us for one of your adventures and we hope to see you again in the future. Safe travels.

8/10 Good

James

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
1 night stay, very comfortable friendly staff and good food
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023
Response from Theresa on Nov 29, 2023
Thank you James for the feedback :)

10/10 Excellent

Inez, Hormigueros

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023
Response from Jo on Dec 31, 2023
Thanks for the great score for your stay. So glad you enjoyed it.

10/10 Excellent

Richard

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Staff (Chloe) very helpful. A gem! Carried our big bags upstairs. We upgraded to larger suites. Excellent. Great dinner and excellent breakfast. Easy parking. Loved our stay!
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023
Response from Jo on Oct 28, 2023
We are so glad you enjoyed your stay and thank you for your kind words. We pride ourselves on giving our guests the best experience possible and we are glad that it was for you.

10/10 Excellent

Leslie

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Diamond at the top of Scotland!
What a pleasant surprise. This hotel is wonderful. We were not expecting much, being the remote location, but Northern Sands exceeded all expectations!! They are kind and thoughtful and the room was great. My husband has celiac disease and they went above and beyond making sure he had everything gluten free. Thank you for your excellent service!!
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023
Response from Juliette on Sep 27, 2023
What a lovely review Leslie, thank you! We are very proud of our friendly staff and glad they made you feel welcome along with providing assistance with appropriate food during your stay. We shall hope to see you again some time soon! ;-)

10/10 Excellent

George

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very comfortable
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023
Response from Theresa on Sep 18, 2023
Thank you for the 5 stars :)

10/10 Excellent

Nicola

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great stay - thanks
The staff were friendly and helpful. The room was good and a brand new shower mat for the bath was provided on request.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023
Response from Juliette on Sep 16, 2023
So pleased to hear you enjoyed your stay with us. We hope to see you again should you return to the area. :-)

10/10 Excellent

Lynne

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023
Response from Theresa on Sep 14, 2023
Thank you so much for the 10 stars

10/10 Excellent

Janet

Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023
Response from Theresa on Sep 14, 2023
Thank you so much for the 10 stars

10/10 Excellent

Susan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very welcoming hotel! Greeted right away by the receptionist. Walked me to my room. Ensured I understood where dinner was and breakfast. The room was spotless and very modern. Dinner was wonderful. The wait staff did a great job. I greatly appreciate gluten free options. Check out was easy.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023
Response from Juliette on Sep 8, 2023
Thank you for the lovely review Susan. The chefs put a lot of effort into ensuring there are options for a variety of dietary requirements and I'm glad this made things easier for you. So pleased our friendly staff made you feel welcome. :-)

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely stay. Clean and beautifully decorated room. Lovely food as well
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023
Response from Juliette on Aug 31, 2023
Thanks for the 10/10 - so pleased you enjoyed your stay with us! :-)

10/10 Excellent

Carl

Traveled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Best NC500 Hotel
North Sands is one amazing hotel. Staff are so friendly, always having a smile and happy to chat. Food is out of this world, both breakfast and dinner. We are doing NC500 & Orkneys, it rained for 2 days, the staff could not do enough to ensure we dried out.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023
Response from Juliette on Aug 31, 2023
Thanks for taking the time to leave such lovely feedback. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and come back sometime! :-)

10/10 Excellent

Geoffrey

Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023
Response from Juliette on Aug 17, 2023
Thanks for the 10/10 Geoffrey - so pleased you enjoyed your stay! :-)

10/10 Excellent

Matthew

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Lovely hotel, clean room, good food, great!
Response from Juliette on Jul 23, 2023
Thanks for the great review Matthew and so pleased you enjoyed your stay with us.

10/10 Excellent

David

Traveled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023
Response from Theresa on Jul 6, 2023
Thank you David, greatly appreciate the fab review :)

10/10 Excellent

James

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023
Response from Juliette on Jun 28, 2023
Thank you for the 10/10 and glad you enjoyed your stay! :-)

8/10 Good

Malcolm

Traveled with partner
Close to North Sea beaches and Thursoe
Stayed 1 night in May 2023
Response from Juliette on Jun 1, 2023
Thanks for the 4* Malcolm, glad you enjoyed your stay. :-)

10/10 Excellent

Stuart

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Enjoyable stay.
We were warmly greeted and the bedroom was cosy and comfortable. We ate in the restaurant and the food was very tasty. The staff were were courteous and helpful.We enjoyed our overnight stay.
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2023
Response from Theresa on Apr 23, 2023
Thank you Stuart for the fab review, its greatly appreciated and hope to see you again in the future :)

10/10 Excellent

Christo

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Excellent service, great food, well located
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2023
Response from Juliette on Mar 16, 2023
Thanks for the great review Christo! We hope you can visit again soon!

10/10 Excellent

Edith

Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2023
Response from Juliette on Feb 20, 2023
Thanks for the 10/10 Edith! Glad you enjoyed your stay.

10/10 Excellent

James

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
1 night stay
Very nice hotel . Just a tad warm in room with a dodgy thermostat on radiator. Nice food and nice staff.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2022
Response from Juliette on Dec 11, 2022
James, Thanks for the review and so glad you enjoyed your stay. I will get our maintenance team to check the in-room thermostat, sorry about that. Hope to see you again!

10/10 Excellent

Sandra, Jacksons Gap

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The hotel room was lovely and the people were so helpful and nice.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2022
Response from Juliette on Oct 5, 2022
Thanks so much for the lovely review Sandra and glad you enjoyed your stay. :-)

10/10 Excellent

Andrew

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2022
Response from Juliette on Sep 14, 2022
Andrew, Thanks for the 10/10, glad you enjoyed your stay! :-)

10/10 Excellent

Steve

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Find
Great hotel food was very good with friendly staff will stay again
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2022
Response from Juliette on Aug 31, 2022
Thanks Steve, so glad you enjoyed your stay. Hopefully we'll see you again soon!

10/10 Excellent

Nicolas

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2022
Response from Juliette on Aug 26, 2022
Thanks for the 10/10 Nicolas! We hope to see you again soon!

8/10 Good

Rachel

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
The hotel staff were exceptional and the food was good.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2022
Response from Theresa on Aug 17, 2022
Thank you Rachel for the great review :)

10/10 Excellent

Kristina

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2022
Response from Theresa on Aug 15, 2022
Thank you

10/10 Excellent

Alison

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2022
Response from Juliette on Jul 13, 2022
Thank you for the great review Alison. We hope to see you again soon!

8/10 Good

Malcolm

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very friendly and helpful staff. The restaurant has been attractively refurbished. The food was very good.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2022
Response from Theresa on Jun 20, 2022
Thank you for taking time to leave a lovely review

10/10 Excellent

Robert Eugene

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
This is a lovely place to stay: great staff, great food and a great room. We know next time to book a bigger room for us. However, the comfort at the bar downstairs was perfect.
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2022
Response from Libby on Jun 10, 2022
Thank you for the positive review Robert. Hope to see you again.

8/10 Good

Alister

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Chaz on May 28, 2022
Thank you for the rating :)

8/10 Good

Chris

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great location for the NC500
Comfortable, clean and well located for a stop on the NC500 route.
Stayed 1 night in May 2022
Response from Chaz on May 16, 2022
Hi Chris, Thanks for you kind review. Were happy to hear you enjoyed your stay with us here :) Kind regards, Northern Sands Team

10/10 Excellent

Norman

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely hotel, spacious and immaculate room. Excellent food and very friendly welcome We would recommend this hotel to everyone.
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Theresa on Apr 29, 2022
Thank you for your lovely review :)

10/10 Excellent

Robert

Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Theresa on Apr 29, 2022
Thank you :)

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Theresa on Apr 29, 2022
Thank you :)

10/10 Excellent

Richard

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
🤗
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Theresa on Apr 29, 2022
Thank you :)

10/10 Excellent

Elizabeth

Stayed 1 night in Apr 2022
Response from Chaz on Apr 4, 2022
Thank you Elizabeth, we are happy to hear you enjoyed your stay with us. We look forward to welcoming you again.

10/10 Excellent

Lindsay

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely hotel
Staff all lovely and hotel was really clean food was really nice what else could you want we really enjoyed our stay.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2022
Response from Theresa on Mar 30, 2022
Thank you for the lovely review :)

10/10 Excellent

John

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Excellent, very clean and comfortable rooms; and great beach so close!
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2022
Response from Theresa on Mar 30, 2022
Thank you for your lovely review :)

10/10 Excellent

Glenn

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2022
Response from Theresa on Mar 12, 2022
Thank you so much for the great rating, its greatly appreciated

10/10 Excellent

Robert

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Place in a grand spot.
Excellent choice of hotel. Best hotel staff I have come across in a long time and I am a world traveller. Fully recommend this hotel. Thanks to all the staff.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2021
Response from NSH Reception on Dec 11, 2021
Good morning Robert, thank you for taking the time to leave a review and we are delighted to see you enjoyed your recent stay with us. We hope to see you back soon.

10/10 Excellent

michael

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Amazing
What a fantastic place to stay, bright fantastic room and very modern, Staff were very pleasant and helpful, Food was totally first class, Also multiple gluten free and vegan 🌱 options that today is definitely becoming a great advantage for a lot of people, Thanks for a great stay and we will stay again,
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2021
Response from Theresa on Nov 17, 2021
Thank you for a lovely review :) We hope to welcome you back again

10/10 Excellent

Adrian

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great hotel and super friendly staff. Highly recommended
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2021
Response from Northern Sands Hotel on Oct 29, 2021
Thank you for your review, glad you enjoyed your stay!

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Business traveler
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Single Room
Stopped in a single room with en-suite both of which were compact. The hotel, room and en-suite were clean and of a good standard. The staff were also super helpful.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2021
Response from Northern Sands Hotel on Oct 29, 2021
Thank you for your kind comments

10/10 Excellent

Marco

Traveled with partner
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great location on NC500, comfortble and spacious room and bed. Very friendly staff, and restaurant with good menu options (including vegetarian), and of excellent quality.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2021
Response from Northern Sands Hotel on Oct 29, 2021
Thank you for the lovely review, so glad you enjoyed your stay.

10/10 Excellent

Johanne

Traveled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Good choice
Friendly, helpful staff. Good location on Dunnet bay
Stayed 4 nights in Sep 2021
Response from Northern Sands Hotel on Sep 18, 2021
So glad you enjoyed your stay and thank you for a lovely review. Hopefully we see you again.

4/10 Poor

Sivamohan

Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2021
Response from Northern Sands Hotel on Sep 18, 2021
Hi I am so sorry to read that you didn't enjoy your stay, could you tell me a bit to why we failed to reach higher than a 4 from yourself?

10/10 Excellent

Ross

Stayed 1 night in Aug 2021

10/10 Excellent

Darren

Traveled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great overnight stop doing the NC500. Great beach within walking distance and a gin distillery next door!
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2021
Response from Keith on Sep 3, 2021
thank you for your nice comments