'A real star, we enjoyed our stay,' enthuse Guide regulars, who visited several hotels on either side of this year's Scottish cruise. 'It was by far our favourite.'

‘A very special place,’ say guests in 2019, of Sian and David Ibbotson’s Victorian hunting lodge overlooking the Irish Sea. ‘The accommodating hosts went out of their way, more than once, to ensure we had a terrific time.'

‘They make you feel welcome and at home’ at Sally and David Ruthven-Fox’s dog-friendly hotel ‘by the shores of Loch Sunart and surrounded by hills’.

‘The welcome was superb, the setting magical, the staff were friendly and helpful,’ writes a reader in 2019, of Lord and Lady Macdonald’s former hunting lodge on the shores of Loch Na Dal.

‘Why is it only on the Shortlist?’ asks a reader, commending the Weaver family’s Edwardian country house hotel with views to the sparkling Firth of Forth across Muirfield golf course.

Beyond ‘splendid wrought iron gates’, a ‘beautifully wooded half-mile drive’ leads to Paul and Poppy Szkiler’s towered and turreted Victorian pile, with a fountain ‘dominating the forecourt'.

‘Top of the range in every respect.’ Much praise from a Guide stalwart after this year's visit to the MacRobert Trust’s ‘wonderful’ hotel bordering the Cairngorms national park.

A welcoming sanctuary, Kate and Gordon Innes’s hotel was built in the early 19th century by French prisoners of war. It is now a popular spot for afternoon teas, cocktail evenings.

A ‘warm’ welcome for pooches and their human companions can be expected at Calum and Rachel Ross’s ‘peaceful’ retreat on the Argyll coast.

‘A beautiful hotel with wonderful food and lovely young staff.’ Readers this year loved their stay at Don and Wendy Matheson’s Georgian mansion in gardens and parkland.

Surrounded by the Cairngorms national park, the Cowap family's restored Victorian shooting lodge is zesty inside. Local artwork, cheery modern furnishings and Scottish flourishes in the wood-panelled public areas.

‘Hill walking from the door, yet walkable into town’, this secluded white-painted Victorian mansion is in a ‘delightful setting’ on the outskirts of Pitlochry.

An Edinburgh icon for over a century, this Victorian railway stop-over is today a thoroughly 21st-century hotel (Rocco Forte Hotels).

Refreshingly spirited, this hotel in an elegant Georgian house in the heart of New Town does not go in for half measures.

‘Helpful hosts’ Katrina and William Reynolds offer a ‘warm welcome’ at their ‘good-value’ 18th-century restaurant-with-rooms in a Borders village.