Pool House
Wester Ross, United Kingdom[view map]
Local restaurants
In summer, enjoy a lunch of fresh mussels with garlic butter at the Kishorn Seafood Bar (+44 (0)1520 733240).
Local bars
Local pubs include water’s-edge Badachro Inn in Badachro (+44 (0)1445 741255), which serves deliciously fresh prawns and salmon, and The Old Inn on Gairloch’s fishing harbour (+44 (0)1445 712006), where you can catch live, local music on weekend evenings; they've lots of real ales, too.
Local cafes
The licensed Aroma Café at the sensational Perfume Studio in Mellon Charles (+44 (0)1445 731618) is open 10am–6pm throughout summer (closed January to March). The tasty soups, door-stop sandwiches, home-baked cakes and aromatic coffees and teas will counter any chills; in fine weather, head to a picnic table for some otter-spotting. Around the corner from Pool House is the Bridge Cottage & Café Gallery on Poolewe’s Main Street (+44 (0)1445 781335), a great stop-off for home-made soups and cakes. For afternoon tea, pause in the Inverewe Garden Restaurant (+44 (0)844 493 2225), across the water from Pool House in the National Trust tropical gardens.
Worth getting out of bed for
The Harrisons are full of information about their local area and can help you organise all kinds of activities. Spend a day getting to grips with Harris hawks (+44 (0)1445 760204). Take a walk to the site of the World War II plane crash. Give the hotel two days' notice and they can arrange whisky tasting at Glen Ord Distillery. In the summer, learn yacht sailing, or go power-boating with a qualified instructor. Take a fast boat to the Summer Isles for a picnic. Visit the Isle Maree: sail across to this second seat of Christianity to see Viking graves. See a porpoise from the 30-foot yacht Ventura (+44 (0)1445 781729).
Diary
July Gairloch sheepdog trials (+44 (0)1445 712412) – watch the dogs in action. August Assynt Highland Games Culag Park at Lochinver (+44 (0)1571 844647; www.albagames.co.uk) for highland dancing, piping, and salmon and trout fly-casting championships; Duck Race, when hundreds of rubber ducks are floated down the river in biannual watery madness.