The Aberdeenshire coast is without doubt one of the most spellbindingly gorgeous, but relatively ignored, parts of the UK. It is ruggedly pretty, blustery even in summer and has 165 miles of coastline to pooter along, eating cullen skink, stovies and fish fresh from Peterhead. From the seawalls at Footdee, you can eat one of those fearsome lard croissants called butteries (or rowies), spread thickly with jam, while staring appreciatively at a trawler in the North Sea simply for breaking up the unending, shimmery nothingness.
If you begin your trip in Aberdeen, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more coastal dining experience than The Silver Darling, because it’s right on Pocra Quay, inside the old customs house. The quaint, cobbled harbour was first registered as a business in 1136 under King David I, and the customs house would never have won any beauty contests; it was made to survive, hewn from granite with a flat roof and a panoramic view of all the ships and boats approaching. There’s a sense from the moment you enter, passing the grand private dining room and up the stairs to the restaurant proper, that these walls have heard their fair share of gossip. Even if, nowadays, it’s the sort of charming place Dame Judi Dench stops off at on her way back from the Braemar Games, to dine on cumin and coriander-spiced monkfish, battered oysters and crispy Szechuan squid.
