Food: traditional Scottish and French cuisine. Delicious wines on offer. We really enjoyed all the amuse bouches and the chocolates after the meals.

Rooms: spacious, beautiful and well equipped.

Surroundings: private beach at the front with an enormous garden. Rolling hills all around. Quiet and picturesque.

Staff: very good service from the staff - they kindly pointed out they had a DVD collection for guests. I arrived quite late at the hotel - much later than expected - but they still served me food even though it was past dinner time, which I thought was very kind of them

An exceptional location with exceptional staff

I disobeyed instructions on arrival by parking my car in the car park instead of halting outside the entrance . No matter, Ian came bounding up into the carpark to carry the bags & escort us to our room before inviting us to tea & shortbread down on the private beach over looking the bay (well what else might the beach overlook). The other staff were all well trained & confident & mein host definitely likes to make an appearance & greet all his guests - often before dinner. An excellent location in its own private cove & with a couple of truly splendid cliff top walks to be made

The room & beds are comfortable though if you do not pay extra for the smarter suites you won't neccesarily have room for settees & armchairs in your room. No problem since the public rooms ,a bar & slightly separate seating area (not neccessarily well upholstered seats) plus a really comfy lounge are very good.

Food is an important feature here & was exceptional. The exact current status of Michelin star ratings is a bit vague but I felt probably was deserving of one. Apparently the chef is a local man who is largely self trained & the evening meals - typically no choice was well designed so no one seemed to have a problem. A huge wine list of serious wines though I would have liked the option of a couple of bottles of cheap plonk. as well

Shall I get picky? Personally I don't hold with even the best hotels not having kettles & those dinky little sachets of Nescafe available especially as by 10.15pm most guests have retired to their rooms so the bar is shut. If you think thats a common touch not suited to such refined elegance well fine (so keep them in a cupboard then)

Your fellow guests seemed largely to consist of well heeled expatriot Scots plus some locals who might come in for a special meal or an overnight stay. My guess is that most people are on 2 night stays

Recommended? Yup

This is the best hotel we have ever stayed in. It was absolutely fantastic! We were in Hanney up in the attic so the views over the sea were lovely. We spent one very quite afternoon reading and playing board games in the lounge, in front of a huge fireplace whilst eating afternoon tea. The weather was lovely so we also managed to explore the surrounding hills taking the coastal walk behind the hotel. The food and service from the second we arrived was excellant and certainly made for a memorable stay. I would love to stay again.

We have just returned from a fantastic 2 night break at Knockinaam. Unfortunately the weather made exploring difficult but we definitely plan to return. We took advantage of a March midweek special rate and it really was astonishing value!