On the West Coast of Scotland, The Airds Hotel is surrounded by one of the region’s most exquisite nature spots, offering plenty of outdoor pursuits to work up an appetite on Christmas Day.

A Victorian hunting lodge overlooking the Irish Sea, Knockinaam Lodge celebrates Christmas complete with a traditional Christmas lunch, boardgames, Boxing Day suppers, long walks and plenty of time for a good snooze

You need to take a ferry crossing before traversing a mountain pass and a deep glen to arrive at this ‘superb country house in a remote and extraordinary setting’ with a private beach on a loch shore with mountain views.

With views to take the breath away, this former hunting lodge owned by Lord and Lady Macdonald stands on the shores of Loch Na Dal at the foot of densely wooded Kinloch hill.

The feeling of a family home pervades this hotel in brimming gardens on the edge of the Cairngorms national park.

‘As well as being a “grand” hotel, the Balmoral is a very nice hotel – the two not necessarily being the same thing,’ say regular readers about this Edinburgh icon.

In 17 acres of gardens and beach on the Argyll coast, Calum and Rachel Ross’s hotel drinks in the views across Asknish Bay and the island-studded Sound of Jura.

A mere ha-ha separates this Arts and Crafts Edwardian house from Muirfield golf course.

With sweeping views of Ailsa Craig and the Mull of Kintyre, Paul and Poppy Szkiler’s Scottish Baronial-style castle hotel balances a ‘stunning, grand building’ with ‘relaxed luxury’.

Hotel grounds don’t get much more ‘exquisite’ than at Don and Wendy Matheson’s ‘beautiful if unadorned’ Georgian mansion, sitting amid 22 acres of lawns, meadows and woodland.

Muckrach Country House Hotel has closed. Surrounded by peaceful pastureland in the Cairngorms national park – a happy setting for the two resident long-horned bulls – the Cowap family’s restored Victorian shooting lodge is within reach of a host of Highland activities.

Roe deer sometimes wander the wooded grounds of this white-painted Victorian mansion, in ‘a delightful setting’ on the outskirts of Pitlochry.

A family-run affair for more than a decade, Katrina and William Reynolds’s 18th-century coaching inn is a ‘good-value’ base for walkers, cyclists, fisherfolk and visitors in search of a tranquil rural break.

‘The atmosphere and service are absolutely first class’ at Kate and Gordon Innes’s hotel, on the High Street of a busy, arty town on the River Tweed.