Bunchrew House Hotel

In 20 acres of gardens and woodland, right on the edge of the Beauly Firth, Bunchrew House is a 400-year-old baronial-style mansion, now a plush country-house hotel, complete with turrets and a portico over the front door. The panelled restaurant has spectacular views over the water to the mountains beyond, and this is the setting for some modern Scottish cooking using fine local ingredients and produce from the hotel's own garden. Ragout of seafood spiked with caviar and herbs gets a meal off to a flying start, followed perhaps by pork loin wrapped in Parma ham with pancetta sauce and a stack of local black pudding and apple. The kitchen looks beyond the confines of Europe in some dishes, accompanying pink breast of wood pigeon with spiced couscous and Madeira sauce, and dusting baked fillet of salmon in Thai-style spices and serving it with lemongrass sauce.