Near the mainland’s northern tip, Ian and Sabine Richards’s Georgian mansion is surrounded by woodland and waterfall on the Forss river, a fishing hotspot.

‘Down a long single-track road, flanked by stone eagles at the gate,’ this Victorian hunting lodge stands in ‘a glorious setting’ by Loch Gairloch, ‘with enchanting views of cavorting seals’.

Standing in a tranquil ‘elegant gardens’, this ‘extremely welcoming’, turreted 1920s mansion is owned by Mark and Christopher Forrester, grandsons of two of the original founders.

Heathery tones and tweedy fabrics bring a breath of fresh Orkney air to this family-run hotel in two Victorian villas just outside the city centre.

In the lea of the cliffs, overlooking a private beach on the rugged Galloway coast, Sian and David Ibbotson’s Victorian hunting lodge offers a great sense of escape.

It’s worth driving the long road to Scarista House, with its ‘well-deserved reputation for excellent feasting’ and ‘one of Britain’s most extraordinary locations’.

‘We felt comfortable and well fed,’ report readers, following a stay at this remote restaurant-with-rooms overlooking Loch Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye.

Mellow sandstone battlements, turrets and towers are revealed only at the final turn of the ‘lengthy’ drive through the ‘vibrant, meticulously tended’ grounds of Paul and Poppy Szkiler’s 19th-century baronial pile.

The overnight sleeper from London arrives in the middle of nowhere in time for a breakfast of porridge with Drambuie at Scott Meikle and Stephanie Graham’s restaurant-with-rooms.

‘A place in the ascendant,’ say our inspectors of Sylvia and John Matthews’s Edwardian mansion overlooking the Tweed valley.

On the shores of Loch Ewe stands a ‘deceptively large’ 18th-century fishing lodge run as a ‘pleasingly eclectic guest house’ by the ‘very welcoming’ Harrison family.

‘How refreshing to find a hotel that continues to strive to be the best, and succeed.’ Guide readers returned to Struan and Louise Lothian’s ‘small but pleasing hotel’ this year with friends, to find ‘the greeting friendly, the room lovely and warm’.

A ‘little jewel’ in a secluded setting, this small baronial mansion crowns sweeping manicured lawns within acres of woodland.

In ‘a splendid location’, Fiona and Richard Trevor’s 18th-century church manse looks out at fishing boats bobbing on the water of a tranquil inlet.

All is fair in the candlelit rooms of James Thomson’s enthralling 16th- and 17th-century buildings overlooking the Royal Mile, with their hidden doors and dramatic nooks and crannies.

The buzzy hub of this Inner Hebridean island, this small hotel has been run by three generations of the Oliphant family since the 1960s.

Light, bright and full of life, Sean and Karen O’Byrne’s super-modern, eco-friendly house is all Scandi style and floor-to-ceiling windows offering memorable views of Loch Creran.

Overlooking the beautiful harbour town, a Georgian-style country house (Perle Hotels) in landscaped gardens has been given a sleekly modern interior.

A tapestry room, a state drawing room, a whisky room, a sitting room lined with gilded Cordoba leather… James Thomson’s 17th-century mansion beside Royal Holyrood Park pleases by a fine excess.

Amid ‘some of the most remote and beautiful scenery one can find anywhere in the world’, Sheila Condie’s traditional Highland inn stands close to the ferry, overlooking the Sound of Sleat.

Late Georgian elegance meets 21st-century boutique chic in the Maclean family’s recently extended hotel overlooking Fettes College and the Edinburgh Academicals rugby ground.

South of Goat Fell’s pyramidal peak, this large, child-friendly destination is the only resort on the Scottish isles.