AFTER running the Red House Hotel in Coupar Angus for 40 years, and the Dalmore Inn in Blairgowrie for 10, Alan Bannerman had marked 2020 as a year to remember.

It's certainly one we’ll never forget.

What should have been a golden celebration is now about how to prevent your businesses being wrecked by a ruinous pandemic.

We made the trip to the Perthshire hotel for a short break recently and wondered how the hotel operates while facing so many restrictions due to COVID-19.

Will we be the only ones there? What will the atmosphere be like? Will we feel safe?

It turns out it's busy, the staff were pleasant and friendly, there are hand-sanitisers and masks worn everywhere and Alan is still upbeat. Life goes on.

It's the only hotel in town and the social hub of the community, they come here for everything from weddings and funerals to intimate dinners and a few pints over a game of pool, as well as an ideal place for a short break.

The trick is to ensure it remains that way.

Alan says he's faced challenges before, admittedly none like this, and has tried to move with the times and spot opportunities over the past four decades.

The family-run business acquired what had been the old railway hotel, when trains still ran to the town, and then some buildings from Scottish Brewers.

Red House Hotel opened in 1980 and it sounds like they've been through as many regenerations as Dr Who.

When squash was tipped to become THE next big sport, they opened squash and badminton courts next door. When no-one wanted to play, they turned it into a nightclub.

After the last dance, they decided to expand the hotel, taking on the adjacent building for a much larger, and more impressive, facility that now has 20 bedrooms, all en-suite and three ideal for the less able-bodied.

Recently, he's invested more than £400,000 so the hotel now boasts a state-of-the-art gym, sauna and sports bar offering snooker and pool, as well as a 160-seater function suite which normally hosts around 24 weddings a year.

So, when COVID meant no alcohol indoors, he called a few friends and quickly had a beer garden set up in the hotel car park, with marquee and outdoor heaters.

It went like a fair when we visited – the pints of Guinness were purely for research purposes obviously – and represents valuable income when pubs, restaurants and hotels are finding it so tough to turn a coin.

Golf is another example of taking the rough with the smooth. A group of 12 lads who had booked to go and play in Turkey couldn't go and came here instead.

It had previously won the Best Golf Hotel (20 rooms or less) at the Scottish Golf Tourism Awards, and going by the raucous tales in the beer garden, the putts that dropped from further and further away in the retelling and the 'glorious' drives when the ball was never seen again, they obviously enjoyed the play-and-stay golf packages on offer.

For us, a family of five, it offered something else again.

Perthshire is a beautiful place to get out and about in; as well as golf and walking, the hotel is ideally-placed for family fun too.

It's just 11 miles from Camperdown Park in Dundee, where the kids had brilliant fun, swinging, sliding, climbing and running, and a similar distance to Active Kids, near Stanley, where we had another fab day out.

Having children also means you have an excuse to go on the flying fox, even if your rear end is uncomfortably close to dragging along the ground! Must've been all the haggis and black pudding at breakfast ...

At Red House, we stayed in a generously-sized family room, something you often struggle to find for two adults and three young kids, that was comfortable and cosy.

There were the little touches of Scottish hospitality, like fingers of shortbread with your coffee and, as the hotel offers food all day, we had breakfast on both mornings and dinner on the first night.

Breakfast was all-singing and dancing; they still managed a buffet for cereals and juice, and you could order everything from a full Scottish breakfast to kippers.

Dinner was excellent too with good portions and options for the kids – the twins even ate the peas this time instead of hurling them at dad – while we scoffed down cullen skink, smoked haddock and leek fishcakes, home-made steak pie and chicken stuffed with brie and cranberry.

The creme brulee, with popcorn and honeycomb ice cream, is so popular that the chef tells you how to make it on the Facebook page.

We had lunch at the Dalmore Inn, which is also owned by Alan and the family and sits on the outskirts of Blairgowrie, a short drive from Coupar Angus.

Originally a small hotel which had fallen into disrepair, a £1 million refurbishment turned it into a classy establishment, a country restaurant with 120 covers and big on local produce.

They even have their own-label gin which, unfortunately, we couldn't try at the time, but dishes like the rump steak, crispy shredded duck and the bacon cheese burger certainly hit the mark, while you can't go wrong with sticky toffee pudding.

For more information, visit: https://www.red-house-hotel.co.uk/ or https://www.dalmoreinn.com/home.