There was an article which caught my eye in last weekend’s Financial Times about Lundies House, a boutique hotel in Tongue, on Scotland’s northernmost coast.
The owner Anne Storm Holch Povlsen is Danish and talked about how she enjoyed going to places “where it feels like you are visiting friends, or friends of friends.”
Lundies House feels like just such a place. Surrounded by a magnificent Scottish landscape, the interior design is simple and calming but also cosy, a mix of old and new, including quite a few pieces of original Danish midcentury furniture, (there is the most beautiful Hans Wegner Papa chair in the lounge).
There are Hans Vangsø ceramics, a wildflower meadow mural in the dining room hand painted by artist Claire Basler, and bespoke oak furniture made by Edinburgh furniture makers Laurence McIntosh, objects of interest and with provenance.
The food looks amazing as well, simple and local, seasonal and foraged, influenced by the surroundings and the owners’ Nordic heritage, what more could you wish for. (And if you want to go and hang out in the kitchen and find out where your dinner is coming from, be their guest).
I love places like this, where you can pick up or eat something and there’s a story behind it – where it’s from, who made it, why it’s been chosen, and I think this connects you to the surroundings and gives Lundies House a real sense of place.
