If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP329.17), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
An unassuming Georgian facade greets creatives, chroniclers, and serenity searchers alike at Boath House – a 19th-century manse not far from Scotland’s northern coast. But once you start to stroll its spruced-up halls, Jonathan Gent’s creatively cast spell soon enthrals; walls are adorned with artwork from a roster of visionaries and mementos left by adoring visitors, and muted tones intentionally make rooms a canvas for period details and thoughtfully curated furnishings. Lennox-dreamt secret gardens are ideal for wandering, and may prompt inspiration for creative residencies, held in the studios. The home-grown cherry on top is Boath House’s farm-to-table fare.
11am, and check-in is at 4pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £395.00, including tax at 20 per cent.
More details
Rates include a homemade Continental breakfast, served in the main house’s dining room.
Also
Due to the historic format of the main house, this hotel isn’t suitable for wheelchair users.
Hotel closed
Boath House closes its doors during January every year.
At the hotel
Walled gardens, drawing room, café, boutique, artist studios, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Audiopro C10 speakers, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water and Aesop bath products. The Boath Lodge also has a fully equipped kitchen.
Our favourite rooms
Each of these 10 rooms has a placid atmosphere and hand-picked collection of antique and modern furnishings; but the Drawing and Writing studios are something extra special as they sit back from the main house, with secluded entrances and babbling-brook backing tracks. Honeymooners may want to check-in to the Grand room, which has made-for-flirting side-by-side tubs with glorious garden views.
Spa
There’s no spa, but the wood-fired sauna makes for a restorative post-hike pursuit.
Packing tips
Your sketchbook and watercolours are all you’ll need to make the most of this creative refuge.
Also
The hotel hosts an artist residency programme, where up-and-coming creatives are invited to spend three to five days painting, writing and recording in the studios, and learning how to garden in the vegetable plot or try salmon fishing.
Pet‐friendly
Fido can stay for £25 a stay in two of the Classic rooms and both studios, just let the hotel know in advance that he’s coming. See more pet-friendly hotels in Nairn.
Children
Welcome, though there’s no kids’ club or babysitting services to keep little ones entertained.
Sustainability efforts
The team behind Boath House has been given a Platinum Award for its Earth-kind approach that includes a compost waste system, exclusive-use of locally sourced ingredients (most of which come from their own gardens) and a complete ban on single-use plastic.
Ask for one of the dining room’s bay-window tables to admire the acres of botanics that frame this Palladian pad.
Dress Code
Bold colours and mismatched patterns tend to work best in a crowd as creative as this.
Hotel restaurant
Chef Philip McEnaney has led Boath House’s restaurant in a sustainable, seasonal direction and the freshest of fare (we’re talking, picked in the gardens, walked back to the kitchen level fresh) is used to concoct creative plates with English, French and Japanese influences (koji-style rice infused with douglas fir, say, or scallops flavoured with Dashi stock and bay leaves). And it’s not just the dishes that change with the season; during winter, meals are served in the main house’s dining room, but once the sun starts to appear diners tend to prefer tables in the fairy-like walled gardens. A café is also set to open in spring, where you’ll be welcome to pick up warm pastries and coffee in the morning.
Hotel bar
There’s a bar in the drawing room which pours from an admirable list of Scottish whiskys, otherwise craft cocktails and vintage wines are poured with dinner at the restaurant.
Last orders
Breakfast is served daily from 8am to 10am; lunch is available on Sundays from noon to 5pm; and dinner reservations are between 6pm and 8pm, Wednesday to Saturday.
Boath House is set on an idyllic estate, a few miles outside the Scottish Highlands’ coastal town of Nairn.
Planes
Inverness is a half-an-hour drive away, and is the hotel’s closest airport. Most European and US flights will require a layover in Amsterdam or London, from where you can then take a direct flight. You can also fly into Edinburgh or Glasgow, which are both around three and a half hours away by car.
Trains
Nairn sits along the Aberdeen to Inverness line that takes you through the scenic Scottish Highlands. If you’re travelling up from Edinburgh, there are direct routes to Inverness, where you’ll have to change for a final 50-minute train. The hotel is a 10-minute drive from Nairn’s main station, and transfers can be arranged for £15 each way.
Automobiles
A car would serve you well in this quieter part of Scotland; there are plenty of places to pick a set of wheels up at the airport, and the hotel has free parking.
Worth getting out of bed for
Boath House has plenty of places to potter within its grounds: head to the walled gardens and help pick fresh vegetables for the evenings dishes, stop by the lakes for a spot of salmon fishing, and take to the studios for solo painting or writing sessions. If you’d rather venture beyond these postcard-pretty gardens, Nairn is less than 10 minutes away by car and the beach is worth a wander throughout the seasons – just watch out for the odd Scottish sun-seeking optimist come summer. The more experienced of strollers can take to the River Nairn and hike the riverside trail to Cawdor (home of Cawdor Castle); and during the winter, the slightly further afield Cairngorms National Park is the home of Scottish snowsports.
Local restaurants
Over in Nairn, Sun Dancer serves seafood with a Scottish twist against gaze-worthy views of the Moray Firth. For something a little lighter, One One Two on the Brae has a lengthy list of sharing plates that are paired with sommelier-selected wines in a jovial, laidback setting along Nairn’s High Street. If you find yourself in Findhorn (around 20 minutes away by car), stop by Kimberly Inn – an 18th-century pub that’s set right on the bay and plates some of the freshest, seasonal fare.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this all-about-art abode in Scotland and unpacked their paintbrushes and flower presses, a full account of their ethereal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Boath House in Nairn…
Quietly creative and set against the rolling Cairngorms, Boath House has arrived on the Scottish scene as Jonathan Gent's (the famed name behind London’s Sessions Arts Club) first foray into refined resting places. Masterfully renovated from a baronet-owned 1830s estate, these 10 rooms (some set in the main house, others in the fairytale-worthy gardens) have a curated blend of modern and antique furnishings, sprawling ensuites with freestanding tubs primed for serene soaks, and walls enlivened with original artwork from the hotel’s in-residence creatives. Season-led dining is served with artistic flourishes that are as polished as Jonathan’s interiors; just-picked vegetables are paired with fresh-from-the-river fish and marvellous marinades – even the cocktails take on a visually-charming form with fresh-flower garnishes. All that, and we’re yet to even reach the art studios and wood-fired sauna.
