The Boat Country Inn

What we remember of The Boat, from a stay in January, is a big open fire in an old building, which in a Highland January is most of what anyone asks of a hotel. The building is Victorian: grey stone, part of it painted white, with gabled dormers and chimneys along a slate roof. The residents' lounge keeps log fires of its own.

Boat of Garten owes its name to the chain ferry that once crossed the Spey at Gartenmore, and nearly everything else to the railway. The village grew up in the later Victorian period around the junction where the Highland Railway met the Great North of Scotland. The ferry has gone. So has the junction. The trains that still call, a few minutes' walk from the hotel, belong to the Strathspey Steam Railway, which runs between Aviemore and Broomhill for the pleasure of the ride. Anyone who has come for them should book the Speyside Suite, which has a four-poster and, the hotel says, a view of the steam trains from the bath.

Dogs are welcome, and the hotel steers them towards the Garden Rooms, where French doors open onto a private deck with the lawn beyond, so the dog gets the room with the garden. Families have rooms of their own, and the children a menu called Wee Rascals. The restaurant keeps to hearty pub cooking. For something else, Anderson's is on the same road, and we thought it a brilliant bistro.

Outside is the Cairngorms National Park, the forest and moorland of upper Speyside, with the Speyside Way running past and the golf course next door. Aviemore is ten minutes' drive. The hotel calls Boat of Garten the Osprey village, a second name to go with the one from the ferry, and the RSPB's centre at Loch Garten is a drive away for anyone who wants to check.

Back at The Boat, the whisky runs from Speyside to the islands, and the staff will choose one for you. The bar's own rule is that the fire is on whenever the bar is open. In January, that settles where to drink it.