Kinloch Lodge

During the 1970s, Lady Claire Macdonald was responsible for transforming the ancient Macdonald family seat into an iconic country house hotel, renowned for its elevated take on Scottish home cooking. These days, however, Kinloch’s portrait-lined dining room is the setting for Marcello Tully’s intricate, precision-crafted contemporary cuisine. For dinner, you might start with a ‘soupçon’ (small cup) of parsnip and Pernod soup, before steamed home-cured salmon wrapped in seafood mousse with dill dressing; after that, a mini course dubbed ‘Marcello’s special’ might bring hake fillet with tomato, chorizo and black olives, before Black Isle lamb fillet with cashews, caramelised apples, pears and dauphinoise potato. To finish a dessert such as vanilla crème-fraîche pannacotta with raspberry sauce, orange and mint sorbet sets the scene for a trolley of Scottish and French cheeses. Lunch is a lighter prospect if you don’t want a full-on dinner, but be sure to dip into the Macdonalds’ highly acclaimed wine list.