Travel: Ardanaiseig Hotel, Kilchrenan by Taynuilt

It's midnight, and the room is bathed in milky light. My partner and I are in our suite: a converted wooden boat-shed with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto Loch Awe. The saucer-shaped moon's reflection is bouncing off the silver water and into our mezzanine bedroom, leaving a trail of snaking shadows on the ceiling.

Magic can be hard to find in posh hotels, but it's at the five-star Ardanaiseig Hotel in abundance. That could be to do with the fact that nothing seems contrived. When you pull up to this 19th-century grey stone country house, after driving ten miles along a single track road, there's a slightly skew-whiff statue outside, a penny farthing propped against a wall and, inside, odd antiques dotted all over the place.

To get to the Boat Shed suite (which is, to be fair, just an easy three-minute walk from the main hotel), one is given free rein of a rickety-looking golf cart. I had my Caddyshack moment, careering along the gravel path, through puddles, while my other half shrieked.

If you can wrench yourself away from the cart, take a wander in the rambling grounds around the main building. Here you'll find a dishevelled Victorian walled garden full of apple trees and giant sunflowers, heavy with swollen fruit and fat bumblebees, respectively.

On one of our walks, after passing through a bank of rhododendrons, we stood only a few metres away from a doe, who blinked at us, unperturbed. We also felt as if we'd become familiar with the chubby water vole which regularly pottered about on the bank beside the Boat Shed's wooden balcony.

With wildlife and scenery like this, it's no surprise that this place has won Intimate Wedding Hotel of the Year 2010 and, back in 2006, Romantic Hotel of the Year, both at the Scottish Hotel Awards. It's not a secret location any longer, though, as, according to the hotel manager, as we arrived the team shooting the Marks & Spencer autumn/winter catalogue had just checked out.

"The model was very slim, but she ate like a horse," confided a waitress. No surprise, really, as the food is fantastic. There is only one menu at dinner: the five-course gourmet list, by chef-de-cuisine Gary Goldie. At first, the idea of a marathon eat-athon every night was a little intimidating, but I scoffed some truly memorable dishes.

These included a thick wad of Aberdeen Angus beef that was topped with chanterelles, a pale-orange courgette flower stuffed with ricotta, duck breast with caramelised peaches, a salty crab risotto and a lilac raspberry souffl that was as tall as a top hat.

After you've eaten, you can take petit-fours and coffee in the drawing room, with its fireplace, grand piano and gold leaf "thrones". On our final evening, we had the energy for a postprandial game of billiards in the basement games room, decorated with mismatched antique chairs. At no point in our weekend stay did we feel we wanted to explore further than the grounds - there is enough here to keep one occupied.

Still, rather than lounging in our suite, we chose to have a fishing lesson on Loch Awe, with a retired local called Alasdair, who patiently showed us how to "troll" for fish using a shiny spinner. We didn't have any luck with the brown trout, but our guide kept us entertained with his running commentary on local landmarks, such as the hotel's 1920s steam boat, Gertrude Matilda, which is grounded, slowly disintegrating, near the shore. He also pointed out the osprey's nest - precariously balanced at the top of a very tall tree. Perhaps they'd decamped to Africa, as nobody was home. "They found one leg tag inside a crocodile on Lake Victoria a while ago," Alasdair revealed.

After the fishing, my chilly muscles were warmed up with an aromatherapy massage in one of the hotel rooms, courtesy of Lizzie, a local artist and therapist. She used one of her own reviving oil blends, which contained a zingy mixture of peppermint and eucalyptus, to perk me up for the journey back to Edinburgh.

I have to admit that I felt rather downcast on returning our key to reception. Without gushing too much, this is my favourite Scottish hotel and I'm saving up my pennies for a repeat visit. Since this is such a romantic place, next time I might even let my other half drive the golf cart.

THE FACTS Rail travel from Glasgow Central to Taynuilt starts from 28.50 for an Anytime Return Ticket, see www.thetrainline.com

Ardanaiseig Hotel, Kilchrenan by Taynuilt, Argyll (01866 833 333, www.ardanaiseig.com). A night in the Boat Shed, plus breakfast, starts from 133 per person. The five-course gourmet menu costs 50 per person. A one-hour massage is 45 and can be booked through hotel reception. A half-day fishing lesson is 70.

This article was first published in The Scotsman on Saturday, August 28