This hotel is truly awful. Rain coming in through ceiling, no hot water in hand basin, all other water in bathroom brown which I know is a problem in peaty areas but this actually had lumps in it! Huge cob webs hanging from light fittings and wallpaper hanging from walls.
The whole hotel is shabby and rundown and needs LOTS of money spending on it. Despite all this they still charge nearly £80 pppn.

We stayed at this "establishment" recently because there was nowhere else.
OMG! What a disaster! And a management team that did not give a damn!
Would advise ALL to give a very wide birth!!!!!!!

Have just returnd from Islay, having cut our holiday short. We had rented one of the self catering cottages for a week however we stayed for only one night.

The hotel and cottages are badly run down. The smell of damp in the cottage was literally overwhelming. The holes in the walls, broken tiles and mildew in the bathroom, filthy windows, broken shower head held together by sticky tape, broken kitchen worktop, carpets and furnishings/bedding from yesteryear......and as for the water supply....literally like pea soup! A warning sign greets you on arrival which basically states the water is unfit for any purpose. The suggested solution however is to collect bottled water from the main hotel. I subsequently received 2 litre bottles of local water from the hotel manager. This appeared to be our ration for the day!

Not surprisingly, we checked out following morning(after a bad nights sleep - had to sleep on the sofa bed in living room due to smell of damp in bedrooms). Ironically, the staff didnt seem at all surprised. I get the impression that guests checking out early is a regular occurrence. The half hearted apology from the reception desk suggested that the current owner is unwilling to spend any money upgrading the hotel and cottages.

I suppose the writing was on the wall from the moment we arrived.......the delapidated sign at the road end....the pot holed driveway to the entrance of the hotel.

Full marks however to Caledonian Macbrayne who thankfully changed our ferry ticket for free of charge and allowed us to get home home at no extra cost.

All an all.....a bad experience(and waste of £130 on a return ferry ticket).

This location started as a nightmare but thanks to the incredible kindness of a BB owner and great customer service of DM Mackenzie car rental our trip was saved. No taxis were available when we got off the ferry in the rain and no buses ran at night. we were stranded. An angel saved us and drove us out to the Machrie.

The machrie itself was very dated and to be honest was shockingly poor for anything than a 1 or at the most 2 start accomodation. We had a cottage and it took most of the night to heat up to 15C. That being said if you want to stay in somewhat exclusion and like the country living aspect, you can survive just fine. The food was fine. maybe a bit expensive, and the bar was very social. The front desk was helpful but staffed to a minimum (ie bartender and front desk staff was one person).

overall liveable but look at other options, especially if you don't want to drive as it is located well off the main road and several km from Port Ellen.