Culdearn House

On the edge of the Cairngorms national park, William and Sonia Marshall’s bay-fronted Victorian house looks on to a tract of the ancient woodlands that surround Grantown-on-Spey. It is more ‘fine guest house’ than hotel, say readers. When our inspectors last visited, they found ‘an atmosphere of comfort and warmth’, the six bedrooms done in eclectic country house style (dual-aspect Craigievar has some fine antiques). The Marshalls are welcoming hosts: ‘We had a very pleasant room, and interesting chats with the man of the house.’ Guests gather for drinks before dinner in a lounge ‘with family photos on the sideboard’. Sonia Marshall’s nightly-changing menus, which some readers report are ‘more akin to home cooking than fine dining’, are a showcase of local ingredients: free-range eggs, humanely reared beef and fish from the Moray coast. ‘The meat and game were so tender and full of flavour.’ At breakfast there is ‘lovely fruit salad, home-made marmalade, and a good choice of cooked dishes’, including haggis. Fishing, shooting, golf, wildlife-watching and whisky tours can be arranged.