In all my years of travelling I can never remember counting down the minutes until I could leave a hotel, then punching the air with joy as I left the hotel premises, relieved at last to have escaped ... that was until my visit to Buness House.

Now I'm not going to be totally negative, the B&B is in a beautiful location on the shores of a sea loch, just outside the village of Baltasound, although it isn't easy to find - just head towards the Baltasound Hotel along the sea shore from Haroldswick/Baltasound and its the big white building on the left.

Upon arrival we received a surprisingly lukewarm "so what are you doing here" kind of welcome, being told that they weren't actually open for the season yet. Waving around a copy of a booking confirmation email with mention in it of a deposit paid did the trick in getting us in though. The inside of the property is bizarrely decorated with skins of dead tigers and other animals hunted by the proprietor's... more