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ON THE COAST
Scotland
The Harbour Inn
The Square, Bowmore, Islay, 01496 810330
This whitewashed pub on Islay serves dishes that are firmly built on the island's produce: oysters gratinEed with leeks and cream, baked crab with a soufflE topping, Lagavulin scallops. You can practically smell the fresh shellfish being unloaded at the harbour from the pub's dining room, but local game and meat are also superb (the cattle graze on grass, wild herbs and even seaweed, which has an astonishing effect on the flavour). There's a cute porthole window in the door and about 30 whiskies on offer. DH
South east
The Sportsman
Faversham Road, Seasalter, Kent, 01227 273370
Self-taught chef Steven Harris has a knack for taking complex ideas from elsewhere and adapting them to pub surroundings, so you can find touches of Alain Ducassse and Heston Blumenthal here in this simple dining room hard by the sea. The kitchen also makes most things itself from local ingredients, including not just the bread, but the butter to go on it and the salt used to cure hams from locally-bred pigs. JR
west
The Cadgwith Cove Inn
Cadgwith, Ruan Minor, Helston, Cornwall,
01326 290513
Smack on the Cornish coastal path, in a thatched fishing hamlet on the Lizard Peninsula, sits this 300-year-old smugglers' inn. The two dimly lit bars with open fires, furnished simply and decked with mementos of seafaring days, have five ales on draught and pub grub from printed menus. For fresh and fishy daily specials, perhaps pan- fried sea bass with bacon and garlic or poached hake florentine, look to the chalkboard. Mullet, sea bass, lobster and crab for delicious soup and sandwiches is landed on the beach below. Or try the plump mussels served with chunks of crusty bread n perfect after a cliff-path stroll to beautiful Church Cove and accompanied by a malty pint of Sharps Doom Bar. AS
Dartmoor Union
Fore Street, Holbeton, Plymouth, Devon,
01752 830288
The leather sofas, chopped logs and glossy piles of mags in this flagstoned bar create a comfortable farmhouse feel, while the burgundy walls of the dining area add a bistro touch. Broad and keenly priced daily menus appeal to all tastes, with some judicious sourcing of ingredients from head chef...