A Restaurant Worth Travelling To: Boath House, Scotland
The Concept
Near the small town of Nairn on Scotland’s sprawling, sandy east coast, Boath House is a beautiful Georgian building in the middle of 20 acres of wild grounds. In the last few years, it’s been transformed to accommodate nine en-suite bedrooms, two restaurants, a lodge and two cabins. Launched as a hotel in 2022, the venue is a gorgeous mix of Scottish and Scandi – its interiors echo the monastic décor of its sister venture, the enormously popular Sessions Arts Club in Farringdon. Opened in February last year, Boath’s hotly anticipated restaurant, The Dining Room, more than lives up to the Sessions team’s foodie credentials.
Heading up the kitchen are the talented Philip Mcenaney and Katie Austin, who between them have worked at Trinity Clapham, Whatley Manor Hotel, Hertog Jan at Botanic Antwerp and Ode in Tokyo. Recognising that the best produce entering their kitchens in London originated from the Highlands, the pair decided to relocate up north, placing themselves in the middle of the region to have first-hand access to these exceptional ingredients. They also have their own produce to play with, grown by Alan the head gardener in a 400-year-old walled garden next to the main restaurant and its more casual offering, The Garden Café. The result is a parade of exceptional dishes that showcase just how special Scotland’s famed natural larder is.
Liam Black
The Setting
As well as its ingredients, Boath House is serious about art and music. It invites multi-disciplinary artists, writers, chefs and musicians to live in the house and grounds. Everything they produce in their time here is then shown, eaten or performed at the Boath House.
You can see some of the results in the hotel’s drawing room, which – as there’s no dedicated bar – is the place to sink into a cosy sofa for a pre-dinner drink (we suggest the meadowsweet vodka sour). For guests, the space doubles-up as a place to read the weekend papers in front of the fireplace, surrounded by a variety of artwork, including many by one of Boath House’s founders, Jonny Gent. There’s also an honesty bar with a decent haul of whisky, which we imagine comes into its own after a long walk along the coast.
Through another arch off the grand foyer, what was once the grand house's breakfast parlour is now The Dining Room. One of the most striking things about the restaurant is its use of candlelight – even at breakfast, it eases you into the morning. With high ceilings, ornate fireplaces, starchy white tablecloths and statement windows, there’s more than a nod to Sessions Arts Club, but the décor has been updated to reflect the hotel’s surroundings – there’s a black-and-white photograph of a fishing boat above one of the fireplaces, and dried stems from the wild meadow in the grounds poke out of ceramic pots. Each evening, it all comes together to create one of the most inviting dining rooms we’ve encountered.
The Food
When Philip and Katie headed north, they wanted to create an elevated dining experience that combined Scottish produce with the culinary techniques refined through their years in the industry. Making good on this, they give guests a choice: The Artist menu, named in honour of the hotel's residency programme, offers two courses for £28 and three for £35; The Experience is an eight-course tasting menu with an optional – but so worthwhile – wine pairing.
Both menus bring together English, French and Japanese influences. As at all restaurants worth their salt, the dishes change regularly and feature local suppliers: game is sourced from Cawdor Estate, edible moss from Culbin Forest, and then there's Jimmy, a local fisherman who catches crab, lobster and mackerel from Nairn harbour on his boat, Lady Peggy.
Everything is prettily presented on plates made by local ceramicist Cara Guthrie, who takes scraps and trimmings of vegetables from the kitchen’s compost and transforms them into ash that is blended into the clay used for each plate. It’s another example of the team’s approach to both form and sustainability – and sets the scene beautifully for the dishes that sit atop them.
The Verdict
We won’t mince our words – our eight-course dinner at Boath House was show-stopping. You can and should judge a restaurant on its bread and butter, and the sculptural tower of whipped butter here – accompanied by bread with a porridge oat crust – kicked the meal off in style. Other memorable moments included a melt-in-the-mouth poached piece of glossy North Sea cod, served in a punchy Jerusalem artichoke, Highland truffle and balsamic foam. Dessert took the form of garden apples with Black Isle yoghurt, local eucalyptus-infused ice-cream, meringue dust and lemon verbena, followed by a ten-out-of-ten chocolate pud, with white port chocolate ganache, fresh blackberry, woodruff syrup, grated almond and nutmeg.
Then there’s breakfast. Warm muffins, local jam and berries, more of that excellent butter, a piping hot bowl of creamy porridge with Highland honey, followed by smoked kippers with poached eggs is what we want for every weekend breakfast in 2025. The kitchen's excellence is paired with relaxed, truly friendly hospitality – and the freedom to roam the grounds (make sure to say hello to the Shetland ponies) and the wilderness beyond. We loved our stay so much, we made sure to buy a memento – a pair of wooden hands the hotel uses to signal whether you want your room made up or not.
Where To Stay
Given the project began life as a hotel, we suggest you book one of the bedrooms on the property. There are classic and grand rooms in the main house. They are sparsely but uniquely furnished with period and modern pieces, and make the most of the views from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Our room was spacious enough to justify unpacking for a couple of nights, had a striking four-poster bed and a billowing cream shower curtain that framed an old-fashioned tub and shower, stocked with Aesop products. And we fell on the jar of homemade ginger biscuits after a windy walk along the Moray Firth.
The Writing Studio is inside the walled garden. Built in the 1500s, its living area has a wood-burning stove and a vaulted ceiling with exposed trusses and skylights – plus, naturally, a writing desk. On the banks of Boath burn, The Drawing Room has expansive windows and an open-plan living space that looks over the woodland along the stream. Finally, Boath Lodge is a modern, four-bedroom hideaway with its own garden. Best of all, guests have access to the secret sauna at the bottom of the grounds, which comes with a ready-made cold plunge in the form of the burn, and a Listening Room down in the basement, where you can order a cocktail, choose from a selection of well-curated vinyl, and spin a record or two before heading up to bed.
How To Get There
For those travelling from further afield, one of the top selling points is the restaurant’s closeness to Inverness Airport, which is just 20 minutes away by car. Given that flights are under 90 minutes, the location more than justifies a night away or a long weekend. For Scottish natives, the hotel is three hours and 20 minutes from Edinburgh by car, the same again from Glasgow and two hours and 30 minutes’ drive from Aberdeen.
Auldearn, Nairn, Scotland, IV12 5TE
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