Scourie Hotel named Best Fishing Provider in Scotland
On Friday 3 July, on the BASC stand at the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace, Scourie Hotel was named Best Fishing Provider at the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Awards 2026. For a small hotel in a remote corner of north west Sutherland, on water that has been fished by the same families for generations, it is an award that means a great deal to us.
Anthony Frampton accepting Best Fishing Provider at the Scottish Country Sports Tourism Awards 2026
An award for the water, and for the people who look after it
The awards are run by Country Sport Scotland, which is operated by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, and are now in their fourth year. They recognise the estates, agencies and accommodation providers who make Scotland a destination for shooting, stalking and fishing tourism, and the Best Fishing Provider category was introduced in 2025 to reflect the growing place of fishing within that.
Kirk Norbury, Project Manager for Country Sport Scotland, said of this year’s entries: “The standard of entries this year was outstanding. The awards highlight the excellence across Scotland’s country sports tourism industry, from long established estates to the modern innovators and ambassadors attracting new audiences to the sector.”
“We are honoured and delighted to have won Best Fishing Provider for 2026. We have worked hard to improve the hotel together with the fishing on offer whilst maintaining the traditions that make us unique. To be recognised nationally alongside such strong company is a real honour for a small hotel in a very remote corner of Scotland. The strength of all the finalists just highlights the abundance of world class fishing opportunities we have here in Scotland.”
Anthony Frampton, Scourie Hotel
The fishing behind the award
The fishing at Scourie extends across more than 35,000 acres, taking in more than 400 lochs and lochans divided into 47 brown trout beats, with substantial portions of the Rhiconich Estate added from the 2020 season. It is, we believe, one of the largest areas of hill loch fishing available to the guests of any single hotel in Britain, and it is why we remain the home of wild brown trout fishing.
Beyond the hill lochs there is salmon and sea trout fishing on Loch Stack and Loch More, and at Garbet Beg on the Rhiconich river system.
What we suspect the judges recognised, though, is not simply the extent of the water but the way it is shared. Since the 1900s the beats here have been allocated by the guests themselves, by way of the blackboard in the lounge and a Board Master drawn from among the anglers, who makes up the following day’s list after dinner. It is an arrangement that has survived more than a century because it is transparently fair, and because it works. If you are new to it, our newcomers’ guide to fishing at Scourie explains how the week runs.
Fishing permits on the hotel’s hill lochs remain included at no extra cost for guests staying three nights or more, as they always have been.
A tradition of the lounge bar
From the bar you can see what is widely regarded as the finest collection of cased wild brown trout anywhere. Every one of those fish was caught in Scourie Hotel waters, a good many of them in recent years, and it remains the tradition that any guest landing a hill loch brown trout of four pounds or more may have their fish take its place there. Writing in Trout & Salmon, John Beer described the collection as “a testament to the fine fishing to be found in the hill lochs around the village”. We rather agree.
Come and fish with us
Scourie Hotel has welcomed guests for over 170 years, since the days when reaching us meant a steamer from Glasgow to Badcall and a pony and trap from there. It is easier now, and the fishing is better than ever.
The award joins the Scottish Land & Estates Helping it Happen Award for Tourism, which we won in 2019.
If this has tempted you, our rooms and rates are here and you can check availability and book online. We would be glad to see you.