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When you’ve had enough of city life, where do you go, to recharge the batteries?
Scotland has a wealth of beautiful and remote locations, that are perfect for getting away from it all. Some may involve a bit of a trek to reach your destination, but Newhall Mains, on the northern edge of the Black Isle, is just 20 miles from Inverness airport.
And if you’d like to arrive in style, you might like to note that Newhall Mains has its own airfield, exclusively for use by hotel residents and restaurant diners.
Now a family-run boutique hotel, the 18th-century building was previously a derelict farm building. Following extensive restoration, it opened as a hotel in 2021 and just a few years later, in 2024, it was awarded a Michelin Key. Michelin’s criteria for Michelin Key hotels include service that goes “the extra mile”, offering more than other hotels in its price range and fitting the description of a “true gem with personality”.
Newhall Mains has five cottages and four double-bedroom suites, all individually designed and decorated, featuring antique furnishings, log burners, sheep-wool quilts and white linen.
Dining here is another draw – a sample menu from the hotel’s Spruce restaurant showcases dishes such as 31-day, dry-aged beef carpaccio, with pickled walnut, aged Parmesan and rocket; North Sea halibut, with parsley crumb and leek fondue; and drinks such as milk-punch colada. In the hotel’s Japanese-inspired whisky bar, there are 20 Japanese whiskies to choose from, as well as more than 50 of the Scottish variety.
There is also plenty to do at Newhall Mains, which has a cold-plunge pool and sauna, as well as lots of activities available, such as croquet and e-biking.
Guests can take farm tours including Highland cow ‘meet and greets’ or visit one of Scotland’s oldest distilleries for a whisky tasting. Day trips are on offer too, for guests keen to see more of the Highlands, with Culloden Battlefield, as well as Cawdor, Dunrobin and Eilean Donan castles to visit.
Scenic flights are available, allowing guests to enjoy the sights of the Highlands from the sky, including Loch Ness, Ben Nevis and the Glenfinnan Viaduct. For wildlife enthusiasts, boat charters can be arranged to cruise along the Cromarty coast and out to the North Sea, where guests may encounter bottlenose dolphins, basking sharks, pilot whales, seabirds and seals.
That’s not all: the hotel can organise picnics and barbecues on remote beaches most easily accessed by boat, which means that guests often have the whole shoreline all to themselves.
Accommodation at Newhall Mains starts at £290 per night (during the winter season). Some activities are complimentary and others have an additional cost.
Photography: Sophie Harbinson, Lightfoot Agency
