Travel: Highland Cottage, Tobermory, Isle of Mull

Published on Friday 31 July 2009 14:51

IMAGES of a quaint wee B&B – warm, cosy and welcoming, hopefully with hearty dollops of comfort food thrown in – are conjured up by the name. That's not entirely right, nor entirely wrong.

Bredalbane Street, Tobermory, Isle of Mull (01688 302030, www.highlandcottage.co.uk)

Traditional hospitality is a house speciality – when we arrived one of the owners was busy trying to sort out a place elsewhere for someone who had dropped in on spec. But there is also an underlying professionalism and sophistication hinted at by a long list of fine dining and customer care accolades awarded by everyone from Les Routiers and Johansens to Scotland the Best! and the AA.

It's relaxed and friendly, not unlike the atmosphere you'd hope for if you were invited to a weekend house party in the country. After a journey elongated by several hours of heavy rain and traffic, the nicely chilled atmosphere is balm to the soul. All manner of refreshment was offered but declined as it was less than two hours to dinner. We wanted to be prepared for what the growing foodie fanbase had led us to expect.

Getting there For most it's the ferry from Oban. Some well-heeled regular guests do fly in to the nearby Glenforsa airfield. If you don't have a private plane, you can take your car or bike on the ferry – or leave your wheels on the mainland and get the bus that meets the ferry at Craignure to Tobermory.

Room service There is one twin room on the ground floor, the other five doubles are upstairs. Although the rooms are not large, all are en suite and each has its own character and antique furniture, including a couple with four posters. All of the rooms are named after Scottish islands, bar the one called Nantucket (the tale behind that one goes back to when David and Jo Currie bought the place more than 12 years ago – and no, it's not a rhyme). Each room has a plasma TV, DVD player (there's a large selection of films to borrow) and an iPod dock. There's free internet access and a computer to use in the upstairs residents' lounge, where you can also have a drink and chat with fellow residents.

The main event While it is an award-winning hotel, to do justice to the quality of the food, it would be fairer to classify it as a fine restaurant with rooms. The food is fresh and locally produced. Breakfast – from cereals and yoghurt, through scrambled eggs and salmon to the full Scottish – will easily see you through to dinner time. There are four courses at dinner, starting with a delicious and delicate appetiser of sweet potato and rosemary velout. I had one of the best vegetarian meals I've ever had – though after a starter of goat's cheese, beetroot and orange salad, followed by mushroom and walnut en crote, served with a mouth-watering stuffed pepper in a subtle mushroom sauce, even I couldn't manage one of the delectable desserts – though the parfait rusty nail and the mint meringue with strawberries were tempting. The omnivores had to choose between six or seven starters, including smoked Inverlussa mussels with mango mayonnaise, crab cakes with chilli caper sauce, or chicken liver and foie gras pat with pear chutney, and five mains, among them seared scallops with saut leeks and ginger and chilli cream sauce, roast monkfish in a tomato and crayfish sauce and baked pork fillet and slow cooked pork belly, savoy cabbage and cider sauce. I've never heard so many people gasp at the sight of their food arriving – over the scale and presentation – or continue to drool over it long after it's been polished off.

Whatever heat is bubbling up in the kitchen – and there must be some to generate such a creative and succulent selection – there is no sign of it in the restaurant where Dave and Barry deliver the perfectly presented provender with grace and humour. You really would think there is a huge staff behind that swinging door, when in fact there is only Jo and a couple of, obviously very able, helpers.

Little extras The opportunities to consume never end. The delicious home-made shortbread in the rooms is irresistible. There's tea, coffee or bottled water to wash it down, plus a little basket of mini-bar type treats – crisps, chocolate and sweets – with the compliments of your hosts.

Arran Aromatics toiletries, bathrobes and lots of fluffy white towels all encourage lounging around – which might well be all you are fit for after you discover the true extent of your greed in the face of almost limitless supplies of fine food.

Out and about Tobermory's picturesque harbour, with its brightly coloured facades, is a short stroll down a steep hill and at least the hike back up helps work off some of the extra calories. There are one or two places where fans of the locally-filmed BBC children's TV series Balamory can buy souvenirs but there are plenty more gift shops catering to more sophisticated tastes too. There must be more than a few talented jewellers and artists on the island, judging by what's available. You can watch various fragrant products being made in The Mull Soap Company or learn how the eponymous whisky is made at the Tobermory distillery. And harking back to more relaxed days when it was quite normal to buy liquor and power tools at the same time, there's Brown's, the licensed ironmonger's where you can find anything from playing cards and cat collars to electric guitars and good old-fashioned customer service. There are also bars and cafes aplenty as well as a museum which will fill you in on the island's history and characters.

How much does it cost? It is 45 per head for a four-course dinner, which can be booked by non residents, or 115 per person per night for dinner, bed and breakfast, based on a minimum three-night stay.