The Airds Hotel

The Airds began life as a ferry inn on the shore at Port Appin and has spent decades as one of Argyll's most reliable places to eat and sleep. Eleven bedrooms and suites face across Loch Linnhe to the hills of Morvern and the low green length of Lismore.

The kitchen has been the making of its reputation, working closely with west coast boats and Argyll producers. The hotel now describes itself in more modest terms than in its Relais & Châteaux years, but the cooking and the setting remain the reasons to come.

The passenger ferry to Lismore leaves from the pier a few minutes' walk away, Castle Stalker sits photogenically on its islet two minutes up the road, and the Clach Thoul coastal path starts at the car park. Oban and Glencoe are each about half an hour.