The old harbourmaster’s house in Saltmere, on the north coast. Every room faces the water.
For a hundred and ten years this was the harbourmaster’s house. Now it keeps nineteen rooms, a fire and a kitchen that buys from the boats.
I bought Saltmere in 2015 with half the roof in the garden, and we opened the following summer. There is no spa, no gym and no television in the rooms. There is a tide table at the desk, boots in the porch for anyone who forgot theirs, and a view that does most of the work.
Isla Brandt, owner
Rates are per room, per night, with breakfast for two. Stays are two nights or more on Fridays and Saturdays.
From $240 a night
Eleven of our nineteen rooms sit above the quay on the first and second floors. You hear the boats go out at six, and by breakfast you can see what they brought back.
From $310 a night
Six corner rooms on the seaward side, each with a window seat deep enough to fall asleep in. The sheets come from a linen mill two valleys inland, and the curtains are heavy enough for a June dawn.
From $460 a night
Two rooms under the roof, each with a stone bath set beneath the old round lookout window. Book it for the November storms as much as for the long light in summer.
The day boats land forty yards from the kitchen door. Whatever they bring in after lunch is dinner, cooked simply and served at one long table and six small ones.
$68
Brown crab on toasted sourdough
Pickled samphire, lemon, a little brown butter
Line-caught pollock
Harbour mussels, leeks and a dry cider sauce
Burnt honey custard
Sea buckthorn from the dunes, oat biscuit
Served 7 to 9pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Tell us about allergies when you book and there is always a dish without fish.
Nobody needs a car at Saltmere. Three ways to spend a morning, all starting at the porch, where there are boots in most sizes.
Out of the front door and along the cliff to Gull Cove. Come back along the sand if the tide is out; the desk keeps a tide table by the key hooks.
From the slipway to the green buoy and back, in water that rarely gets past 60°F. Towels and a flask of tea are waiting at the desk from seven.
The long one. Up over the headland on the coast path, down through the wood to the old ferry steps, and home in time for a bath before dinner.
March 2026
4 min read
January 2026
6 min read
October 2025
5 min read
Sample publications, shown for illustration.
Tell us your dates and we will hold the room while we reply, usually the same evening. For tonight or tomorrow, it is quicker to call.