Glenmorangie House

In a glass-fronted cabinet at Glenmorangie House, above a stand of walking sticks and a row of red wellingtons, ceramic giraffes share the shelves with black-and-white advertisements headed "Glenmorangie couldn't pay me to do this ad". The giraffes have earned their place. The distillery that owns the house has the tallest stills in Scotland, with necks as high as an adult male giraffe. The house itself is 17th-century, on the coast near Tain, with walled lawns and a private beach, and inside nobody has held back. The sitting room is gold, painted with wildflowers and ears of grain, its round red armchairs facing a fire in a white marble fireplace. In one bedroom, monkeys climb through dark jungle wallpaper round a striped four-poster. Dinner is in a plum-dark room under a copper pendant that looks poured rather than made, at one long table for everyone staying.

Recommended for couples and friends happy to share dinner with whoever else is staying, and for families, who are put in the three courtyard cottages, each sleeping four and a cot. Younger children get an earlier supper; older ones may join the grown-ups at the table. The distillery is twenty minutes' drive, and the tour is free to anyone staying. Beyond that, the house arranges foraging with its chefs, or a boat at Cromarty for a chance of dolphins in the firth. Dogs are welcome, and the wellingtons under the giraffes are a hint about the beach. Dinner is four courses from a menu that changes every day, and with only nine rooms filling the table, the company can change nearly as often.