Highland success as hospitality stars in Inverness, Skye, Brora, Fort Augustus and Ardnamurchan score success at the Scottish Excellence Awards
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FOOD, hotel and hospitality delights have helped Highland businesses to post superb showings in the annual Scottish Excellence Awards.
Skye restaurant Edinbane Lodge was named Restaurant of the Year in the glittering ceremony in Edinburgh on Thursday night – with the three AA Rosette destination restaurant Station Road at The Lovat in Fort Augustus also finishing among the five finalists in the same category.
Edinbane Lodge, which only opened five years ago, took the title of best restaurant in Scotland to mark another triumph for 33-year-old Chef-Patron Calum Montgomery, who was born and raised on Skye.
The Lodge is one of only six restaurants in Scotland to hold four AA Rosettes for culinary excellence.
Judges said: “Calum and his team were above exceptional in all aspects of the criteria including benchmarking, innovation, sustainability and ethics. With a very strong list of finalists, all those who were short listed made the final call very difficult, such was the calibre of applicants. “
Calum was also a finalist in the Chef of the Year category.
Elsewhere, Skye's Duisdale Hotel on the Sleat peninsula and the Royal Marine Hotel in Brora also scored highly in the competition, finishing second and third respectively in the Group Hotel of the Year category.
And the Best Newcomer Restaurant title went to Mingary Castle in Ardnamurchan, which is run by Jessica Thompson and her partner Colin Nicholson.
Visit Inverness, which has 400 tourism business members and is the first carbon-neutral Tourism Business Improvement District (BID) in the UK, won a highly commended rating in the Sustainable Business Award, with the Glen Mhor Hotel and Apartments in Inverness finishing third in the same category.
The 16 experts on the Awards Advisory Board included award-winning lecturer and author Gary Maclean, Lovat Loch Ness owner and sustainability specialist Caroline Gregory and Andrew Fairlie protégé and Great British Menu-winning Michelin-Starred chef, Lorna McNee.
