The Torridon

Everything The Torridon is made of came in by boat, down to the soil in its kitchen garden, which was shipped over from Ireland. William King-Noel, first Earl of Lovelace, who had married Byron's daughter Ada, built it in 1887 as a hunting lodge on Loch Torridon, in dark red stone under grey slate: the kind of Highland holiday Queen Victoria had made fashionable. She is remembered inside, where the drawing room has a zodiac across its ceiling for her interest in astrology. The bedrooms keep their antiques and add colour. In one, a red and white headboard rises to a point like a chapel window, and the bath, built like a cask from pale wooden staves banded in chrome, stands free on the carpet.

Recommended for anyone who would rather be out on the loch than in a spa, which is as well: there is no spa and no pool. The hotel's own outdoor team takes over-16s kayaking and snorkelling on the loch and on guided walks in the mountains, with Liathach and Beinn Eighe rising north of the glen. Families are welcome, the dog included; the Stables, 100 metres from the house, have family rooms but no view of their own, so for the loch, book in the main house. Dinner comes off the estate. Bo & Muc, named for the cow and the pig, cooks the hotel's own Highland cattle and Tamworth pigs, with vegetables from the two-acre garden, and 1887, the tasting room, takes diners of twelve and over from Wednesday to Sunday. The Whisky Bar keeps 365 malts, one for every day of the year, and the hotel stays open all year to match.