WE LOVE Newhall Mains – new luxury accommodation on Scotland’s Black Isle

The latest hotel on our radar is Newhall Mains, a sensitively restored farm building on Scotland’s Black Isle

ON heading to Scotland’s Black Isle you’ll find it’s neither black nor an island but a Highlands peninsula with well-earned appeal. Stay in the newly restored Newhall Mains, a former 18th-century farm building that’s been saved from dereliction and lovingly restored into a series of handsome cottages and guest suites by its family owners. Arriving at the impressive handcrafted gates bedecked with ram horn motif – the work of Dumfries-based artist, Adam Booth – will be the first tell that the sensitive restorations have incorporated a host of Scottishbased craftspeople; the charming and homely interiors are thanks to London-based Kelling Designs.

Its five cottages and four double bedrooms are set around a classic quadrangle. They can be booked individually or the estate can be rented out as a whole, sleeping 28 of your nearest and dearest for when social distancing is a thing of the past.

You’ll be perfectly at home in your surroundings but you must venture out to take in a day trip or two. Set off from nearby Cromarty to see bottlenose dolphins on a wildlife-watching RIB or on a summer’s day head to the Falls of Shin, famous for viewing salmon leaping upstream. And, as it’s Scotland, of course whisky distilleries and golf courses are abundant.

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■ Rooms from £95 a night for a double; £250 for a three-bedroom cottage, newhallmains.com