Forss House

The River Forss loops around this late Georgian Highland retreat in wooded grounds, today a dog-friendly hotel that is ideal for anglers, with shooting, stalking and hiking also on offer. You enter through a castellated extension built in 1930 by one Major Radclyffe, hunter and falconer, to house his trophies. The warmth that lies within owes much to Anne Mackenzie, the ‘charming, diminutive lady of the house’, and life and soul since 1989. She is still here to advise why you must have a ‘teardrop’ of water with your whisky, but Nicholas Gorton is the manager. Main house bedrooms range from cosy to colossal. There are others in the River House and Fishing Lodge annexes. A reader was shown to a ‘huge bedroom overlooking the slightly wild gardens’, with ‘red and green floral decor’ and ‘very comfortable red sofa’. The bathroom had ‘a vast bath, more like a swimming pool, with a shower over’. At dinner, 
a short menu includes such dishes as Caithness beef fillet and ox cheek, Scrabster cod with smoked mussels, and a vegan option. ‘The food was superb,’ other readers pronounce. (Chris Elliott, and others)