Knipoch Hotel serves outstanding food and a bit of ghost hunting

The Knipoch Hotel near Oban is a well-loved, clean and relaxed home, like that of a much-loved Highland auntie.

As though you are sitting in the same place as the very “well-to-do” from our Scottish descendants.

I could almost hear the rustle of crinoline skirts as I was seated in the finely decorated dining room.

The original lodge dates from before the 15th Century.

Rooms from that period still exist, as it forms one of the dining rooms which is renowned as the site of the murder of the Thane of Cawdor.

Recently taken over by Anne Gracie Gunn – known for the Sonas Collections’ stellar hotels and dining on Skye – I wondered if my trip to Knipoch would live up to such a huge reputation.

The murder of the Thane of Cawdor

History books say that in 1591; Campbell, Thane of Cawdor, was “treacherously” assassinated at the “house of Knipoch in Lorne”.

The Thane of Cawdor, also known as MacBeth, appears in Shakespeare’s play of the same name.

Over the years the lodge has been extended, with major renovations in the 1970s and 80s.

Do not for a minute think this is a stuffy place, it is far from it.

The business was recently taken over by Anne Gracie Gunn.

It is a place to be drawn into.

The staff, particularly Stephanie, Adrian and Andreas were gentle, kind and friendly. And not just to me, or Mr MacCulloch who joined me to eat, to everyone.

There was a larger group, say six people from Colorado dining, some Texans, some well-to-do Yorkshire ladies (and they were Ladys) and two people from Germany.

Our dining room was one of three dining rooms used the night we were in the Knipoch Hotel.

Each room is small enough to be warm and exclusive and large enough to be intimate and uninterrupted by the conversations of others.

As someone who has lived in Oban for many years, the Knipoch always felt exclusive, and that it wasn’t a place you called into on the off chance.

Staff actively now encourage people to pop in and see them.

Knipoch Hotel’s food was ‘outstanding’

To get started we had tomato and green olive bread, with sun blushed tomato butter. To my shame, we had more than one slice.

For starters, Mr MacCulloch had haggis potato terrine, which tasted like the best Rabbie Burns supper ever. Delicate, crisp and light with its turnip puree, picked turnip and whisky gel.

Blue Murder cheese soufflé at the Knipoch Hotel. Image: Louise Glen/DC Thomson

But the thing I would go back for time and again is a Blue Murder cheese soufflé with a tasty Waldorf salad. It was, as my dad would say, “a taste sensation”. How on earth someone like the hotel’s South African chef Andrew Engledow manages to put a perfect soufflé out time after time amazed me.

The texture and structure was awesome: the crisp cheese cracker was packed with flavour. Well done. Thank you. Be my best friend.

For mains, Mr MacCulloch had a pork fillet on a bed of Toulouse sausage casserole, with pork crackling crisps.

He said it tastes like something his mum would make, and his mother runs an award-winning café, so this was the highest of praise. Pork was perfect.

Pork fillet. Image: Louise Glen/DC Thomson

Each room is small enough to be warm and exclusive and large enough to be intimate.

I had a sizeable portion of delicately seared Kames Steelhead trout steak with big authentic Indo-Asian flavours.

The trout fell off the folk, and landed in the mouth with a delicate katsu curry taste. It was a lovely, comforting taste with a sweet hint of light soy. The trout was on a Bombay potato bed with puffed rice, with Asian-inspired pickles. And a delicious crispy, seductive onion bhaji.

I tucked into ‘the best pudding I have had’ at Knipoch Hotel

And then to a third course.

When you review food, the third course – or pudding – can often be a disappointment.

Think again.

Try the National Fruit of Scotland: Apple.

That’s the only hint from the menu, of what this might be.

Do not bypass it thinking it’ll be a mushy crumble or a baked apple.

This is the best pudding I have had.

I’m going to try to describe it. It looked like an apple. The glaze was perfect.

The Apple in the Knipoch Hotel. — National Fruit of Scotland: Apple. Image: Louise Glen/DC Thomson.

Inside was an apple cream mouse. It tasted like a light, light cheesecake, but an apple praline at the same time.

Can that even be possible?

The apple pudding at the Knipoch Hotel. — The inside of the apple pudding. Image; Louise Glen/DC Thomson.

The base was a sweet firm pastry with the best, buttery flaky crumble was the bed on which these heavenly tastes lay.

Mr Engledow… marry me.

We had cocktails, mocktails and a glass of white Romanian wine.

We tucked into cocktails, mocktails and a glass of wine.

Before I tell you where the ghosts fit in, I know you will want to know if it cost an arm and a pair of legs, well not really.

Starters were upwards of £12, mains were £28 -£32, and puddings £10 and up, the generous Scottish cheese board and stem ginger ice cream good value at £21.

Mocktails were £7, cocktails £14, wine by the glass or bottle, beers and almost any whisky you can imagine from £7 and up.

So, after a well-made and nutty-tasting coffee, we went to say our goodbye and thank you, when Stephanie said she would show us the room where a murder took place.

The gunshot is still in the wall.

We then went to look at the delightful hot tub.