‘Everything you’d expect from a really good hotel is here,’ writes a trusted Guide correspondent in 2017, fresh from celebrating the holidays at the Francis family’s characterful hotel above Hugh Town. (‘These chaps know how to run a good party!’) ‘It’s a super place: comfy bedrooms with everything you could want; stupendous food at all mealtimes; friendly but professional staff.’ Within star-shaped fortress walls, the hotel occupies a 16th-century castle; ‘fine bedrooms’ are in the main building and ramparts, and in chalet-style buildings (some with a veranda overlooking the sea) in the grounds. There are a tennis court and a new sun deck for good weather; for rainy days, or ‘to simply relax in great comfort’, there are ‘well-stocked bookshelves’ and plenty of board games. (Plenty of real ale, too, in the Dungeon bar.) In the original officers’ mess and the vine-hung conservatory, Billy Littlejohn’s cooking includes lots of seafood, perhaps crab and lobster from St Mary’s harbour. Come morning, boatman Tim helps plan a day of island-hopping, or a tour of shipwrecks, seals and seabirds. (Abigail Kirby-Harris)