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Food and drink
in Easter Ross.

It’s 20:05 in Easter Ross.
Easter Ross

From Tain station to Balintore harbour.

Eating out in Easter Ross means good local food in places with a story. In Tain, the old stone and timber station beside the platform is now a restaurant and bar, cooking smash burgers, slow-braised beef and local seafood, and dogs are welcome. On the High Street, a smart dining room in a handsome stone house serves home baking, light lunches and afternoon tea. Out on the Seaboard coast, a village inn at Balintore has hearty plates and a view over the Moray Firth. Book ahead in Tain, as tables go quickly even midweek.

Balintore Inn→
Platform 1864→
Greens Restaurant→
Inver Inn→
Place of the day18 hours ago

Greens Restaurant.

A restaurant in London House on the High Street in Tain, cooking with local produce, with lunches, home baking and afternoon tea, and dinner at the end of the week.

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From our guide16 hours ago

Cromarty Pottery.

Across the firth in Cromarty, a stone cottage on Shore Street is full of hand-thrown terracotta: mugs, jugs, bowls and teapots, each painted with dancing ladies, flowers, birds and beasts. The pottery has been working here since 1966. Barbel Dister, who trained as a tile-stove builder in Hamburg, came to work for its founders in 1990 and later took it on. Every piece is thrown or built by hand and decorated with coloured slips. Gallery 48 shares the cottage, and the pottery takes commissions for weddings, births and anniversaries.

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Tonight14 hours agoEaster RossGreens RestaurantRestaurantEaster RossBalintore InnRestaurantEaster RossInver InnRestaurantEaster RossPlatform 1864Restaurant

A table for tonight.

Restaurants to book ahead, and the ones you can still walk into.

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From our guide12 hours ago

Balintore Inn.

The Balintore Inn is the Seaboard's village inn in the old sense, with a bar, a restaurant and rooms, in a long, low stone building by the shore road. The food is hearty and the portions generous, and the lamb and the mac and cheese are the dishes people come back for. There is a fire inside for cold days, a beer garden for warm ones, and a view over the Moray Firth from both. The Mermaid of the North sits just along the shore, so it makes a natural stop after a walk.

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Somewhere to eat10 hours ago

Inver Inn, Easter Ross.

The Inver Inn is a bar and kitchen on the Easter Ross peninsula, known for its food and its whisky.

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Did you know9 hours ago

Caboc, a rich cream cheese rolled in toasted oatmeal and made in Tain, in Easter Ross, is said to go back to a Highland noblewoman of the 15th century.

The story goes that Mariota de Ile, born in 1429 to the Macdonald chiefs of the Isles, took cream that would have been churned into butter and matured it in barrels instead, making a chieftain's cheese. Caboc is still made from cream with no rennet, shaped into a log and rolled in toasted pinhead oatmeal, and it was once a cheese for the wealthy. Highland Fine Cheeses, based in Tain, makes it today, and Susannah Stone of the family that runs it claims to be a direct descendant of Mariota herself. It is served with oatcakes or dry toast.

Read about it
From the magazine7 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 05Issue 05Autumn / Winter 2022-23

William Munro Ferguson makes the UK's most northerly cider in the old stone stables at Novar, a Highland estate on Scotland's northeast coast.

He spent a season in Normandy learning cidermaking from a master, Eric Bordelet. Back home, Highland apples were mainly cookers and eaters, but he needed tannic apples for real depth of flavour, so he headed to Herefordshire and came back with 21 of the hardiest varieties. His seven-acre orchard of 3,000 trees now mixes them with heritage Highland apples on a south-facing slope. Lately he has been experimenting with wild yeast, letting it establish on the crushed apples for 48 hours before pressing. 'The wild yeasts up here work down to around two degrees,' he says.

Read the full story in Issue 05
Quiz5 hours ago

Glenmorangie's stills at Tain, the tallest in Scotland, all keep the long-necked design of a pair it brought in 1887 from what kind of distillery?

Newly discovered3 hours agoEaster RossCromarty Brewing CompanyAttractionEaster RossKirkmichaelAttractionEaster RossUdale Bay ViewpointAttractionEaster RossLittle Garve BridgeAttractionEaster RossBlack Water FallsAttractionEaster RossArdmair BeachAttraction

Some good places to go, newly added to the site.

The newest places on our pages in Easter Ross.

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From our guide1 hour ago

Cromarty Brewing Company.

Just before the road reaches Cromarty, a lane turns off to Davidston, where a small family brewery makes its beer in small batches, unfiltered and unpasteurised. The beers have won a string of awards. The core range runs from Happy Chappy, a pale ale, to Ghost Town, a dark porter, and Red Rocker, a red rye IPA, with limited editions coming and going. The brewery shop sells them chilled, in cans and bottles, and the staff will happily help you choose. Pick some up for the evening on your way into town.

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From our guideJust now

Platform 1864.

Trains still stop at Tain, but the old stone and timber station building beside the platform is now a restaurant and bar. The local chef Graham Rooney opened it in 2015, and the name was chosen in a competition at a local school. The long dining room keeps its wooden floors and stone walls, and the bar is clad in patterned tiles, with barrel tables and a wall of greenery. The cooking is hearty, from smash burgers and slow-braised beef to local seafood and sticky toffee pudding. It is popular, so book ahead. Dogs are welcome.

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From our guideJust now

Anta.

Anta's factory stands out on the farmland near Fearn, a long, low building with tall red-framed windows, and its shop is in a timber hall next door. The company was founded by Annie and Lachlan Stewart, a painter and an architect who met at art college in Edinburgh. Its stoneware is painted by hand in patterns taken from Scottish landscapes, and its tartans become throws, cushions, bags and carpets. The shop lays it all out, from shelves of mugs and bowls to stair runners of tartan. It makes an easy stop on the way to Portmahomack.

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