It's a shame about this place, the building has a lot of potential, though it falls short through lots of shoddy workmanship, and poor upkeep. It's actually quite insulting that the owners think that paying guests should put up with this (see photos).

Where do I start...

-One of the bedrooms had no working lights whatsoever - at the end of October, this is pretty useful!!??! Even the table lamps in the room didn't work. I offered the table lamp from our room (warned them it had a broken glass surround - see photos), and when we tried it, we found that one didn't work either. For the whole weekend, the only light they had to use was a table lamp (that they borrowed from my 5yr olds room), plugged into a wall socket at the corner of the room. In October, this is laughable.

-Someone had attempted to replace one of the spotlights downstairs before, but failed, as the fitting was still inside - but no bulb.

-In our room there was a cupboard full of junk that they clearly had never bothered to clean out (why not - do guests not deserve better?). Inside there was even used Christmas crackers (we stayed at end of October - could they really have been there since last christmas?), and a postcard addressed to whoever lived there once. This wasn't hidden - just in the cupboard. Also, stacked on the shelf under the window there was approximately 30-40 unopened (still in the cellophane) issues of "What Car" dating back a few years. This didn't really bother me, but I think it just helps to illustrate that the owners clearly havent thought much about clearing out the junk and seriously preparing it for paying guests. Why would anyone want to read car magazines from 2/3 years ago?

-The downstairs toilet - had tiles off the wall to access the stopcock. Shoddy.

-The downstairs toilet had the worst ceiling repair ever. Clearly the upstairs bathroom had leaked down at some point, bowing the ceiling. The ceiling should have been repaired properly, instead of polyfilla, that looked like it had been applied with a teaspoon.

-The coat hooks in the kitchen - there were only 4 but 3 were snapped off anyway - everyone had to hang coats over kitchen table. Would have been a simple fix to unscrew and replace the hooks. Shoddy.

-The crockery and glasses were dirty. I just feel like "come on! really?" again, see photo of literally a random glass I took out (they were all like this however)

-The dining room is a lot more narrow that it might appear on photos - not ideal for large groups, but this is shown on the website to be fair.

-The chairs in the dining room were broken, and should be repaired or thrown out (photos)

-The dining room had exposed heating pipes that looked a mess, and were very hot to touch (not great for kids). Clearly these were originally concealed behind the wall, but the wall has since been removed and not replaced which explains why they are on show.

-One of the rooms still contained stuff from the previous guests??!? Aftershave and hairdryer still left there. Like I say, not cleaned properly (see photos)

-One of the beds had a terrible, terrible "repair" - that we found out only by a lad complaining of a sore back (again, see photos). A piece of wood just wedged under? Again, it makes you think "really???? you think guests don't deserve better?"

-another of the beds was a bit "cheap and chatty" and even the motion of turning over in bed (a slim guy too!!) popped the slats out and he sunk through the bed to the floor (not great at 4 in the morning).

-Living room carpet was very dirty.

-Stair carpet was very dirty.

-Upstairs shower was installed "shoddy" - again, look at the photos.

-Upstairs bathroom had a poorly repaired floor, that bowed under your weight.

-and there were either mice/rats that woke me up at 2:30 in the morning from scuttling around in the ceiling cavity. This type of thing happens in an old house - I appreciate that, but this should be sorted really.

-The living room was at the opposite end of the house - this was just an inconvenience more than anything

-The kitchen is small, and not very well provided for large groups. The carousel in the cupboard was very flimsy and one of our group only opened the door and everything poured out onto the floor. It's also very dark and dingey in there.

-Downstairs feels a bit like a rabbit warren with all different levels, and corridors.

My honest advice, until the owner of this place takes holiday lettings seriously, you should find somewhere else to stay. Trip advisor doesn't allow me to upload enough photos of everything that was wrong

The facts,

Auchtermuchty isa very small town with 2 pubs (we went in one and can confirm it is nice and now currently closed to be refurbished), a post office, a Chinese takeaway and a little convenience shop. You can walk round it in 5 minutes. The paths are narrow and there is a very busy road so really unless you have a car Auchtermuchty may not be for you

The house is a great base if you have a car being close to Cupar, St Andrews and even Edinburgh (the zoo is more than do-able for a day trip)

Cameron House faces straight on to the aforementioned very busy road hence the bedrooms at the front of the house and the lounge suffer from quite a bit of road noise and if your sat in the lounge with the curtains open and a double bus passes you can wave to the people sat on the top deck as your that close. Similarly young children need close supervision when leaving the property although it is recommended you use the back door rather than the front to avoid exiting on to the main road.

There is very limited outside space so children can’t play outside although the house is plenty big enough inside

There are loads of bedrooms and beds although the house, in particularly the showers, are not tall people friendly as the 5 footer of the group who could touch the ceiling in the shower cubicle without arms being fully extended can testify.

Our experience

Travelling from some distance with small children the owner kindly allowed us access to the property earlier than the usual allotted time. ‘The key will be ….’ Were our instructions. On arriving to find no key we rang the owner who after a short while rang us back to say there had been a mix up and they weren’t expecting us until the following day. As a result they hadn’t finished cleaning the property and hadn’t left the key. The owner was approx 20 mins away so we left to have a wander around Auchtermuchty (see above paragraph)

On returning the owner had arrived and was very pleasant, he fitted a new shower curtain to the main bathroom, left instructions about the heating then left. It’s safe to say the property did suffer from the owners being caught on the hop. In the bedroom we stayed in the previous occupiers aftershave and hairdryer were still there, the freezer contained Yorkshire puddings and frozen pizzas, a pineapple was on the window sill of the kitchen. General evidence that we were not the first who had stayed at the property was continued to be found throughout the house.

Whilst mix ups can happen there were a number of certain things that can’t be excused. In addition to the lack of general clear up from the previous occupiers items at the back of cupboards had clearly not been cleaned for a while and things such as glasses needed to be washed before they could be used.

Pipework that became quite hot when touched was left exposed in the dining room (not great for small hands), stains that had clearly been there for a while were on the stair and lounge carpets, tiles were removed from the downstairs loo leaving an earth wire exposed (again not good for small hands), hearths on fireplaces were not attached (downstairs bedroom) and the backs of two dining chairs were completely severed. One cupboard was full of old computer equipment and personal post. There was even a bed where the metal sprung had broken, a previous fix had been done to it - a piece of wood pushed underneath it to prop it up which promptly fell away as soon as anyone lay on the bed. I could go on about further bodge jobs, broken items and general sloppiness but won’t.

We had a lovely weekend away. But this was down to the company we went with and the lovely Cairnie Fruit Farm and Craigtoun Park we visited rather than the house. Go to the latter two you will have a ball, don’t go to Cameron.

Upon arriving to Cameron House, it looked great! A lot of us had been dropped off and were left without cars which may have reflected on day activities but we went for a walk and brought plenty stuff to entertain ourselves which made the days fly by. Most of the facilities were great, the kitchen had everything we needed, even a coffee machine! Next to the kitchen was a small utility area, there was a tumble dryer and a washing machine as well as a freezer and a second fridge (definitely needed for larger groups). The living room was perfect for a large group like us, there were plenty couches and the large flat screen TV was great for watching films. The bathrooms initially were great, there are 2 bathrooms in the house which worked fine for 19 of us. However after a day we discovered a fairly bad leak coming from the upstairs bathroom which had left water gathered in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom. I'm sure this will be fixed soon and this would not stop me returning. This then had left us with one bathroom between us, normally this would had been a big issue but in my experience it had a fairly minor effect on our time at Cameron House. The bedrooms were all great, except when more than one person sat on a single bed the bed slats fell through on multiple occasions, this occurred on most single beds in the house. All doubles and larges were fine.! One of the kind size beds even had a memory foam mattress! I was in the downstairs bedroom with a king size and a single and couldn't have slept any better than I did! It was perfect. As well as the fresh bed sheets the rooms all had towels in them for each guest which was great. Overall I had a great time over the 4 days we were here and would definitely return in the future.

Many thanks!

Whole family (17) spent the weekend celebrating my Father's 80th birthday.
Property was in a great location with plenty to do in surrounding area.
The house was perfect for our needs with plenty of fresh linen and towels. Although there were only 2 toilets we managed fine. Would definitely book again and would highly recommend.

A fantastic house for a family get together - 14 of us covering 3 generations had a lovely weekend celebrating my mum's 70th birthday.
2 public rooms, gave us room to be together or do separate activities and the kitchen was very well equipped, allowing us to create our Heston inspired Birthday Dinner.
Lovely walks straight from the house, great board games - and 2 fridges, made for a lovely weekend. Thank you!

An excellent base for exploring the areas of interest. A comfortable, clean house with plenty of space to meet the requirements of large groups.The property offered all the facilities, including free WIFI, and board games to keep young and old family members satisfied. An additional bathroom would have been beneficial but overall we had an enjoyable stay and would happily return in the future.