For sale: celebrated restaurant over the loch

Perched on the distant shore of a remote loch, Scotland's most exclusive restaurant is up for sale only months after it was forced to give up its two-star Michelin status.

Despite its location on the far side of Loch Broom, Wester Ross, opposite the West Highland port of Ullapool, the Altnaharrie Inn has built up an enviable reputation worldwide.

Self-taught chef Gunn Eriksen and her husband, Fred Brown, have attracted guests keen to sample the local produce – and the 10-minute boat ride across Loch Broom to get there. The alternative, landward approach, through one of the last wildernesses in Europe, was never an advisable option.

Eriksen, who trained as a ceramicist before opening the restaurant in 1980, is regarded as one of the most decorated female chefs in the world.

In addition to being the only restaurant in Scotland to achieve two Michelin stars, it is one of only four in Britain rated 9/10 by the Good Food Guide and recently received five rosettes in the AA's food guide.

But after a series of back problems triggered by a couple of slipped discs, Eriksen and her husband were forced to withdraw from this year's restaurant guides after closing at the end of last year. Although there were hopes that they would reopen, they admitted defeat yesterday and announced the restaurant was up for sale with a price tag of over £500,000.

If and when it does reopen the inn, which usually opens between Easter and mid-October and has an annual turnover of £360,000, will have to win back its honours. "It is a great loss to the area," said Andrew Turville, deputy managing editor for the Good Food Guide.

Eriksen has had approaches in the past to compile a book of her own recipes using local produce and unexpected ingredients such as hawthorn, nettle and sorrel.