The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2023 - Issue 34

biterestaurant A round 2,500 million years ago, the red sand- stone of Torridon, a small village in the North- west Highlands of Scotland, was created with the mountains rising to over 3,000 feet from the water. Beinn Damh Estate became part of the lands of the ancient Abbey of Applecross, founded by St Mal- ruba (Maol Rubha) in 673 AD. Centuries later, Torridon existed as an ironworks converting pig iron produced in furnaces on the Loch Maree shore into wrought iron for shipment to England. English landowner, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey and dis- tinguished scientist William King-Noel, the first Earl of Lovelace, purchased Beinn Damh Estate in the late 19th century. He completed Beinn Damh House in 1887 as a hunting lodge, which took 20 years to build. His wife was Lord Byron and Lady Wentworth’s legitimate daughter, Ada, a pioneering ‘poetical scientist’ who assisted math- ematician and philosopher Charles Babbage in under- standing and write the first computer program. Babbage, considered by some as the ‘father of the com- puter’, originated the concept of a digital programma- ble computer. Ada discovered it could be programmed to calculate Bernoulli numbers (a sequence of rational numbers frequently occurring in analysis), possibly the first algorithm used for computing. She also developed a vision of the capability of computers that went beyond mere calculating or number-crunching, while others, in- cluding Babbage, focused only on those capabilities. The original Torridon House entrance was through the Dining Room until the clock tower was added. The Hall, Eilean Chasgaig Room (Dining Room) and Drawing Room bearing an unusual zodiac ceiling dedicated to Queen Victoria, who frequented the road between Torri- don and Diabaig in 1900. Accompanied by her personal servant, John Brown, the queen made the Scottish High- lands ‘respectable’ again for English nobility to enjoy as an ideal holiday home. Sixty years later, Beinn Damh House was converted into Torridon Hotel, managed by the Lovelace family, who moved into Torridon House. Following the death of the 4th Earl, the hotel was sold to Major Braithwaite, who lat- er sold it back to the Countess of Lovelace and the Ben Damph Resort to a Dutchman, Mr Katz. In 1992, Katz sold it to David and Geraldine Gregory, who reopened it as The Loch Torridon County House Hotel, restoring and retaining many of its original Victorian features. In 1994, the newly branded hotel was awarded ‘Best Newcomer’ at the AA Hotel Awards. The following year, the Ben Damph bar was renamed Ben Damph Lodges and converted the stables, sheds and buttery into 12 bedrooms, a pub and a restaurant. It also received the AA ‘Best Hotel in Scotland’ award in 1998 before Daniel and Rohaise Rose-Bristow, the Gregorys’ daughter and son-in-law, moved from London to Torridon to join the business as managers the following year. That same year, the Torridon Kitchen garden was turned back into a productive two-acre Victorian garden. The hotel accumulated more accolades, with Rohaise win- ning ‘Best Development of People’ at the Highlands and Island Business Awards in 2000, three Red Star awards in 2001 and was included in the ‘Top 200 hotels in Britain’ in 2002. Rohaise and her husband bought the business