Scarista House

There are few more remote hotels in the Guide than this Georgian former manse, in a ‘spectacular’ setting between a white-sand beach and heather-clad mountains. Run by Patricia Martin and her husband, Tim, it is a welcoming place, where new arrivals are greeted with a pot of leaf tea, home-baked cake and scones. Lounges have a cosy, ‘lived-in’ feel, with ‘squashy sofas’ and a real fire. Three of the bedrooms are in an annexe. Lily has a super-king-size bed, a bookshelf bedhead stocked with Penguin classics, and an anteroom in which to sit and watch the sunset. The decor may be a mite dated, but there is praise for a ‘wonderful, spotless bathroom’ with a bath to wallow in and a powerful overhead shower. Dinner is composed of organic, wild and home-produced ingredients. A typical menu: Uist crab tart; navarin of Lewis lamb; fresh figs, brown-bread ice cream and langues de chat. At breakfast there is Ayrshire bacon, Stornoway sausages, Inverawe kipper, Salar smoked 
salmon, eggs from the house hens when they are laying. Then a visit to one of the island’s tweed weavers is a must.