Scarista House

The long drive is worth it to this edge-of-the-world location, where a Georgian manse, with pretty, traditional rooms and superb food, overlooks a long sandy beach. Patricia Martin, co-owner with husband Tim, makes practically everything from scratch – from bread and cakes to pasta and ice cream – and greets guests with afternoon tea before they go for a walk (beach or hills) to work up an appetite for the nightly changing set dinner. Dishes could include monkfish with fennel and pea purée, and cherry clafoutis and almond ice cream. With notice, most diets are imaginatively catered for. There’s a pretty blue dining room, a garden room for summer eating, and two sitting rooms with a ‘homely atmosphere’, squashy sofas and fires; one has ‘wall-to-wall bookshelves’. Bedrooms (three in outbuildings) have a no-nonsense traditional style with patterned wallpapers, solid wood furniture and pretty china. All have views of garden, beach or hills; two have sitting areas with sofa and wrap-around windows facing the sea. Sleep to the sound of the sea and wake to ‘the lowing of cows and cry of seagulls’ and a ‘generous breakfast’.