The Three Chimneys & The House Over-By

Once you’ve alighted the train at Inverness, driven along the shores of Loch Ness, through mountains & over the sea to Skye, you’ll want to stay a while. Only the devoted & serendipitous end up here, but Shirley Spear’s converted crofter’s cottage – now a high-ranking, oak-beamed restaurant-with-rooms – will certainly have you transfixed to the magnificent scenery, if not to the locally sourced, open-minded Scottish menu. Try Broadford smoked haddock, fine bean & local quail egg salad with Ayrshire bacon & Onuga butter dressing for starters, followed by pan-fried Sconser scallops & breast of wild mallard, winter brassicas & tattie scones. You can slurp some oysters from the loch in-between courses, & no trip here would be complete without the famous hot marmalade pudding with Drambuie custard.