Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 23 on 14/10/2005.

This article is 36 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Hogmanay hotels

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Ceilidh Place
Ullapool, Wester Ross
Tel: +44 (0)1854 612 103

An hour west of Inverness, the single word ‘hotel’ just isn’t enough to describe what you’ll find – for this is a unique place, one we admire hugely.

Anticipate a Highland inn, coffee shop, restaurant, bar, parlour, bookshop, bunkhouse, with exhibitions, music, books, art, ceilidhs and more. At Christmas and Hogmanay the hotel organises ‘alternative’ celebrations, days of enjoyment we have tried and appreciated. Live music, dancing, good food and shared informality or craic shape events which creatively turn a back on festive clichés.

The Ceilidh Place sits back from the scenically situated, whitewashed village’s harbour front and offers from its lounge balcony a panorama of Scottish village architecture, forest, loch and mountain. The design is rugged and strong with echoes of the years over which the place grew organically. Floral wallpaper you will not see; open beams and barn doors, you will.

The parlour bar is cheery, offering a good range of drams and drinks by the open fire. The openplan residents’ lounge is sophisticated without being stuffy, and despite being pretty-well tartan free it is undeniably Scottish. Guests love this space.

An honesty bar is a boon. There are games and books and magazines and alcoves and soft Celtic music playing in the background.

Life-affirming, the Ceilidh Place won the Good for the Soul Award 2005… so is an ideal base for a true Oidhche Challain, or Hogmanay: New Year’s e.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Best of Scotland

Page number : 46