Widbrook Grange

A Georgian stone farmhouse filled with upcycled agricultural salvage might seem an odd sort of sister hotel for a Scottish hunting lodge, but here, as at Shieldaig Lodge, Gairloch (see entry), it’s all about heritage. Owners Nick and Charlotte Dent have had a field day playing up the property’s past as a model farm, pressing all kinds of vintage miscellanea into service – churns, handcarts, seed spreaders, weighing scales … Among the whackiness, there is a gin bar, an indoor pool and cosy lounge. Bedrooms in the main house have a fashionably muted palette, while those in converted stables and piggery have rustic beams and exposed stone. Some are dog-friendly; four-footed friends are extremely welcome here and can enjoy a special afternoon tea with their owners. A reader thought the shabby-chic decor ‘tended towards shabby’ and was ‘really in need of decorating’ but praised the ‘friendly staff’ and the ‘very tasty’ food. ‘Large portions of belly of pork and rump of lamb were delicious.’ At breakfast there are local pork-and-leek sausages and black pudding, thyme butter mushrooms, kippers, home-made baked beans. (CH, and others)