Clockwise: Lonach Highlanders, The Strathisla Distillery, Eduardo Paolozzi’s bronze sculpture at the Dean Gallery Edinburgh, Benmore Botanic Gardens, near Dunoon, Argyll.
Connoisseurs Scotland
The cities are vibrant with museums, art galleries and cafe culture and offer retail therapy to satisfy every whim.
Edinburgh is host to The Military Tattoo and the largest arts festival in the world.
walk for hours without seeing any buildings is about an hour from Edinburgh. The west coast, one of the most beautiful sailing or walking areas in the world is just two hours from Glasgow. The journeys to these places are not on some soulless motorway but on quiet and even deserted roads that take you past distilleries which welcome visitors, with the occasional glimpse of a wild deer, a red squirrel or the famed golden eagle. With many of our hotels, it has been said that the journey there is an integral part of the enjoyment of the visit. Certainly that is the case for our more northern properties- Pool House and Inver Lodge. When I drive there I pass by such places as The Firth of Lorne, Loch Linne, The Sound of Sleat and Loch Maree. Their evocative names are amongst the most beautiful places on earth. If you are visiting Seil Island you have the opportunity to walk over ‘the bridge over the Atlantic’. Wherever you are in Scotland you are never far from a golf course. Whether we invented golf is a matter for discussion, but what is abundantly clear is that we have many of the most beautiful and most famous golf courses in the world. The Ailsa and Kintyre courses at Turnberry
are revered all over the world, while The PGA Centenary Course, the venue for the 40th Ryder Cup Matches in 2014, The King’s and Queen’s Courses at Gleneagles are on all serious golfers’ must-play lists. The views of Loch Lomond from The Carrick at Cameron House rival those of St Andrews from The Duke’s Course. But the most spectacular view of all is from the top of the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa in St Andrews, looking over The Old Course to the headquarters of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, where the rules for golf for the whole world are set in stone. To experience this is an awesome experience for golfers and non golfers alike. But equally inspiring are the smaller and perhaps less well known courses that you will find all over the country. At the foot of The Mull of Kintyre, the area immortalised by Sir Paul McCartney you will find Machrihanish Golf Club, which is well worth the journey. At the other end of the country play The Royal Dornoch Golf Course, designed by the legendary Tom Morris. When Tom Watson, five times Open Champion, visited, he said that it was the most fun he had ever had on a golf course! Between these two courses you will find other gems,
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