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HIGH LIFE
Peter Ranscombe travels to Skye to visit the Three Chimneys, a restaurant-withrooms that’s been wowing guests for more than 30 years, both with and without its Michelin star.
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ew names conjure up images of fine dining like the “Three Chimneys”. Opened in 1985 by Eddie and Shirley Spear, the restaurant has become one of the most famous in Scotland, with diners making the journey to the Isle of Skye to sample fresh Scottish produce cooked to the very highest of standards. Since the Skye Bridge opened in 1995, the island has become far more accessible to visitors. Many of the roads are now dual-track – in fact you’d be forgiven for thinking you were still driving along the West Coast of the mainland in places – and only the final stretch along Loch Dunvegan leading to Colbost is still single-track. The Spears were quick to capitalise on the increase in tourists by opening The House Over-By in 1999, turning the Three Chimneys into a restaurant-with-rooms. Six of them to be precise, just across the car park from the old cottage with its white-washed stone walls and black slate roof tiles in which dinner is served. Calling it picturesque just doesn’t do it justice. As the tide ebbs and flows in and out of the sea loch, the kelp
sweep fields reveal seals at play, while ducks, geese and waders call Colbost home at different times of year. The Three Chimneys began winning awards not long after opening, being crowned “Scottish Restaurant of the Year” in 1990 and picking up a plethora of prizes on a regular basis ever since. Its trophy cabinet is now bursting at the seams, having scooped the “Editor’s Choice: UK Restaurant of the Year” title in the 2018 Good Food Guide. Both the AA and VisitScotland rate the establishment as a five gold-star restaurant with rooms, with the AA also awarding it three rosettes for its cooking. Its breakfast and wine list have also won awards. For many years, perhaps the only thing missing from the restaurant’s pantheon of prizes was a Michelin star. In 2014, head chef Michael Smith – who took over kitchen duties from Shirley in 2006 – won the eatery’s first star. He left just months later and the following year’s guide didn’t award the restaurant a star. Yet Shirley was sanguine, saying at the time that the star had been “a complete surprise” and that she “completely”