traveldk.com

Even though it’s only 7 miles (11 km) long by 2 miles (3 km) wide, the Vikings liked this island so much they stayed for 400 years. As well as tranquillity and sandy bays, the island is celebrated for Achamore House and its semi-tropical garden.

A tiny “Isle of Sanctuary”, on which stands a superlative hotel: a baronial castle with as many down feathers and soothing fabrics as comfort could desire. A golf course, swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis courts and the freedom of the wildlife reserve are all at hand. Badgers turn up for milk at the bar most nights.

George Orwell sought the isolation of this house when he came to Jura to write Nineteen Eighty-Four . You get to stoke the cooker with coal, much as the writer would have done in 1946. If you don’t have a four-wheel drive you’ll have to walk the last 5 miles (8 km). Check out the Corryvreckan whirlpool, but don’t – as Orwell did – get caught in it.

Loch Breachacha, and a corner of Utopia for £2 a night! Okay, you have to provide the canvas, but you get to live on a beach with views over the bay to Breachacha Castle. Simple facilities but this includes showers and you need no more on this wonderful island.

Safe bathing, sandy beaches, colonies of puffins and wonderful isolation make the Isle of Muck (either isle of “pig”, or “porpoises”) a rat-race escapee’s dream. Port Mor House is a well-established guesthouse, run by the family that still owns and farms the island. After a day’s walking or beach-combing, indulge in superb and imaginative cooking.

Share in the fantasy of this magnificent Victorian folly, Kinloch Castle. Dine at the bistro or stay in the former servants’ quarters, a self-catering hostel (see Kinloch Castle, Rum) . A great place from which to imbibe this beautiful and mountainous island.

A self-catering flat close to the beach on a halcyon Hebridean island, now linked by causeway to South Uist. A rare convolvulus grows here, said to have been planted by Bonnie Prince Charlie to mark his first landfall in Scotland – Prince’s Beach. Any stay is incomplete without a visit to Am Politician bar, with its relics from the ship in the famous British film classic Whisky Galore .

The Gatliff Hebridean Hostels Trust has restored two old black-houses (cottages blackened inside by peat smoke) to make this hostel, overlooking the Sound of Harris. Berneray is Prince Charles’s favourite island: its west coast is one long beach. Great walks and birdlife.

A castle with real home comfort, completed in 1848 to a slightly eccentric calendar design (it has 7 turrets, 12 entrance doors, 52 rooms and 365 panes of glass). This family-run hotel has style, class and great service. There are four-poster beds, open fires, a library and even a private chapel. A garden and locally-produced food with flavour add to the mix (see Balfour Castle, Orkney) .

Britain’s most northerly country house hotel is a 16th-century laird’s home with a history that reads like a thriller. The whitewashed house combines character with elegance; winter visits are warmed by peat fires (see Busta House Hotel, Shetland) .