‘A more beautiful setting than this peaceful bay could hardly be wished for.’

‘A haven of tranquillity and quiet comfort’, Graeme Lamb’s ‘well-run’ hotel stands in ‘a wonderful setting’ on the shore, looking across the Solway Firth to the Lake District hills.

On an island of white-sand beaches and rocky inlets (human population 135; seals, otters and eagles unnumbered), Jane and Alex Howard’s 18th-century inn sits at the centre of village life, with quiz nights and live music.

‘As excellent as ever.’ Regular guests were ‘delighted to report’ this year that this ‘wonderful’ 1840s dower house at the gateway to the Highlands ‘remains unchanged’.

‘More home than hotel’, the Macdonalds’ ‘fabulous’ Victorian country house brims with family history and aristocratic fixtures.

Amid its own grounds of lawn and woodland, on the shores of Loch Sunart, Sally and David Ruthven-Fox run a welcoming small hotel.

‘A gem of a hotel’ in ‘a beautiful situation, with a view of the loch and the occasional eagle overhead’, Laurence and Katie Mackay’s Victorian country house delighted readers again this year.

There’s ‘a good night’s sleep’ and more at Jean Urquhart’s ‘lively’ Ceilidh Place – a popular fusion of cultural hub, bookshop and small hotel, one street back from the ferry terminal.

It’s worth driving the long road to Scarista House, with its ‘well-deserved reputation for excellent feasting’ and ‘one of Britain’s most extraordinary locations’.

In a ‘glorious location’, this 19th-century whitewashed inn, perched above Loch Fyne, is run as a ‘terrific’ hotel, bar and bistro by Gill and Archie MacLellan.

A tapestry room, a state drawing room, a whisky room, a sitting room lined with gilded Cordoba leather… James Thomson’s 17th-century mansion beside Royal Holyrood Park pleases by a fine excess.

Approached by a private road, this ‘large, rambling but wonderful’ late Georgian mansion, in ‘magnificent grounds’, is owned and cherished by Susannah and Stuart Macpherson.

Grey seals loll the day away along an old ferry slipway on the shores of ‘wild, beautiful’ Loch Glendhu – the ‘superb setting’ for ‘hands-on, energetic’ Tanja Lister and Sonia Virechauveix’s ‘most enjoyable’ small hotel.

Famous distilleries, ‘lovely walking trails’ and trout-rich lochs are within easy reach of this traditional Scottish country hotel, an Islay fixture for over 150 years.

‘Log fires were burning in the bar and residents’ lounge when we arrived on a miserable day,’ write readers this year, of a visit to Nick and Nikki Horne’s ‘very efficiently run’ hotel on the Loch Linnhe shoreline.

The overnight sleeper from London arrives in the middle of nowhere in time for a breakfast of porridge with Drambuie at Scott Meikle and Stephanie Graham’s restaurant-with-rooms.

‘We were looking forward to our stay,’ write Guide insiders, on returning to this classical Georgian mansion in ‘wonderful grounds’, rescued from ruin in the 1990s by Don and Wendy Matheson.

Merchant Richard Oswald, Cavens’s original owner, helped negotiate the 1783 Treaty of Paris – now this ‘charmingly run’ Georgian manor house attracts modern-day visitors in search of serenity.

Amid the ‘drowned landscape’ of North Uist, with its tidal strands, lochans and peat bogs, this former shooting lodge overlooking Loch Langass is run as a hotel by Amanda and Niall Leveson Gower.

‘A place in the ascendant,’ say our inspectors of Sylvia and John Matthews’s Edwardian mansion overlooking the Tweed valley.

On a winding road, past woods, ferns and steel-grey lochs, John and Susan Martin’s ‘good-value, well-located’ small hotel is ‘a haven of tranquillity and good food’.

Once the local doctor’s house, close to the town centre, this ‘well-appointed’ stone-built Victorian villa is now a modern guest house, enwrapped by ‘a pretty, surprisingly large garden’.

A welcoming sanctuary for outdoorsy types, Kate and Gordon Innes’s town-centre hotel provides storage for fishing rods, guns and bicycles, as well as knowledgeable details on activities in the Scottish Borders.

Having swapped the dark glitz of a Soho nightclub for the big sky splendour of loch and munro, Alice and Jade Calliva are the ‘friendly, welcoming’ and ‘highly motivated’ owners of this 18th-century former coaching inn.