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Father and son team, Donald and Paul Newton took over The Highland Drove in 1998, returning it to a much-loved local pub, with restaurant and rooms that has an appeal embracing a much wider area. The Award of Les Routiers Northern Dining Pub of the Year in 2004 underlines their success.

Emphasis is on local produce, with game and fish in abundance; mallard, brill and wild salmon are regularly featured on the menu. In the restaurant, called Kyloes after a particular breed of Highland cattle which used to pass this way, a popular starter is the fishy dishy, a selection of smoked salmon, crayfish salad, soused herring, marinated anchovies, whitebait and crispy fried cuttlefish, or perhaps the feuillette of lambs kidneys with mustard, juniper and cream.

As a countryman I have been rather off rabbit ever since myxamatosis was imported from Australia, but it now seems to be staging a comeback in culinary terms so I overcame my prejudice and went for the rabbit and bacon pie, baked in a double crust with cider and cream. Wow! Absolutely delicious. The sugar baked ham with citrus fruits and a rum and raisin sauce enjoys popularity, and if all else fails there's always the duck breast, coated in honey, with black pudding, fried apples and cider sauce.

Puddings are straightforward and if you are looking for a gourmet freshener try the lemon possett with a shortbread biscuit. Wine is taken seriously at the Highland Drove, by which I do not mean with pomposity, but enjoyably and with an open mind.