Scourie Lodge and Gardens

Scourie Lodge is a family-run guest house on the north-west Sutherland coast, roughly halfway round the NC500, and it is one of the more thoroughly dog-minded places on that route. The welcome for dogs is not an afterthought bolted onto a pet policy: guests arriving with dogs find towels, blankets and treats already waiting in the bedroom, along with poo bags, and there is a shared box of dog kit in the communal area for anything you have forgotten or run out of on the road.

The owners are the other half of it. Guests with dogs describe hosts who want to meet the dog before anything else, and who produce extra blankets and towels without being asked twice. Parties arriving with two dogs have been accommodated without fuss. For anyone driving the NC500 with a dog, that combination - somewhere the dog is actively wanted, at roughly the right point in the route - is worth a good deal.

The lodge itself is quirky and well cared for, with unusually large rooms and equally large en-suites, comfortable communal lounges and a strong reputation for cleanliness. Food is cooked from scratch on the premises, cakes included, and priced reasonably; the trade-off is that the menu is short, so anyone with particular tastes should check what is available before arriving hungry, given how few alternatives there are nearby. A laundry service is offered, which is more useful than it sounds after several days on the road with a wet dog.

Two practical warnings. The lodge has been hard to find - it has not always shown correctly on mapping apps and there is no sign on the main road, so it is easy to drive straight past, and it is worth getting directions in advance. Showers have been reported as warm rather than properly hot. Best suited to anyone touring the north-west Highlands with one or two dogs who wants a genuinely welcoming, well-run base rather than a slick hotel. It earns a 4.6 out of 5 paw rating.