The Poplars Guest House

Climbing East Moulin Road above Pitlochry, the drive turns sharp before reaching a gravel car park with eight spaces at the back of the house. The building dates to 1878, a Victorian villa with a central staircase that still circles up through the middle of the house. Rooms sit on the first and second floors, most with en suite bathrooms and a small step into the shower. A superior double looks down the Tummel Valley from a separate seating area, with a king bed and a bath as well as a shower. Twin rooms face the garden or the valley, each with two single beds and a modern en suite. Breakfast runs in a dining room with picture windows over the garden and the hills, cooked to order and pre-ordered the night before to cut waste: bacon, sausage, black pudding, haggis and free-range eggs, with a smoked salmon and a vegetarian option alongside. It is a compact stay, unsuited to prams or wheelchairs given the stairs and thresholds. Pitlochry's centre, its shops, cafés and the Festival Theatre, is a short walk downhill. Guests can hear little beyond the wind off the hills at night. Check-in runs from 3pm to 6pm, check-out by 10am, and a single car park space comes with each room.