Why this guest-house owner won't give gay couples a break A four-night stay in a B&B - it seemed a reasonable request. But Tom Forrest's refusal to let two men sleep in a double bed has kickstarted a far-reaching chain of events. By Jennife

Up at the guest house, the sign

at the roadside tells visitors that

walkers and cyclists are welcome. Wheelchair users, vegetarians, vegans and coeliac sufferers who require a gluten-free diet are also all welcome at Cromasaig B&B.

There is no indication that in this neat, white-painted house on the single-track road through the Beinn Eighe nature reserve to Loch Torridon, Monarch of the Glen merges with Fawlty Towers. That is until the owner informs us that smokers can only indulge their filthy habit outside and that lesbians and gay men are also welcome - as long as they don't want to share a double bed. ''We've had same-sex couples here before with no problem as long as they are willing to take a twin room,'' says Tom Forrest.

Forrest's refusal to allow two gay men from London to share a bed in his house for four nights in August sparked a row that has ricocheted from the quiet, white house in Kinlochewe to the worldwide web and beyond. On Thursday night, it was a leading topic for debate on the BBC's Question Time.

It all started innocently enough when Stephen Nock, a campaigns organiser with VSO in London, sent an e-mail to Tom and Liz Forrest asking if their double room would be available. He signed it Stephen Nock and Jean-Paul Martinon. Tom Forrest assumed from their names that they were both foreign and had mistaken the term double room for one accommodating two people in separate beds. He fired back an e-mail: ''Our double room which is available only has one bed in it. As it would appear from your names you are two gents, do you mean a twin room? Which is also available on dates required. Please confirm.''

The confirmation was not what he was expecting. It read: ''Thank you for your reply. We are two gents. Yes. We are a couple. Would that be a problem for you?''

Tom Forrest's reply was presumably not what Stephen Nock was expecting either: ''Hi Stephen, we do not have a problem with your personal sexual deviation, that is up to you. You are welcome to our twin room if you wish but will not condone your perversion.''

From then on the tone deter-iorated, culminating with a complaint to VisitScotland (which had awarded Cromasaig three stars) which resulted in the B&B being removed from its website.

Forrest is unrepentant. ''To find us through the VisitScotland website, people have to know the name of the house. We've only had one booking by that route in the past couple of years. We get them through our own website and by repeat bookings from building up the business over the past 11 years.''

He's quick to add, however: ''I'm not going to take down the sign until they give us our money back. We've paid for these VisitScotland symbols.''

It's impossible not to point out that he is trying to have his cake and eat it. He's perfectly happy for two people of the same sex, whether partners or not, to share a twin-

bedded room. Is this not hypocritical? He insists not, saying: ''I fully accept they could both get into the same bed. In fact, that could be an advantage, because we would not have to change the bed linen.''

And it is clear from the lavishly illustrated Cromasaig website that the two beds in the twin room are generously proportioned.

Someone intending to tackle the steep slopes of Wester Ross will think Cromasaig a haven of friendly welcome. Tom and Liz found Cromasaig almost by chance 11 years ago when they had to stop in the passing place at the gate and saw the sign: ''For sale. Apply within.'' Now she provides dinner, bed and breakfast while he offers the guests the benefit of his hillcraft and navigational knowledge. He has plenty

of time left to take photographs of the extraordinary cliffs and peaks

of Torridon, prints of which he sells in his shop.

So why on earth spoil it? If he really can't live with a gay couple in his double bed, why not say it's not available? ''That's worse,'' is the reply. The aversion he feels is almost biblical in its ferocity, but he insists he is not a Christian fundamentalist. ''I go to church regularly and I've been in the campaign to save our church in the village.''

In fact, Tom Forrest is no stranger to campaigns. When foot-and-mouth disease closed the countryside to walkers, Torridon was one of the first areas where paths were reopened - thanks to a concerted effort by the Forrests and a guide from Lochcarron.

Forrest claims he has been set up, pointing to an e-mail received at 7.39pm on May 31 from Garry Otton at Scottish Media Monitor. It reads: ''I was shocked when I read the experiences of a young gay couple travelling in the Highlands. And that in this day and age we are still seeing such outdated values! Kick yourself into the 21st century.''

That led to another exchange of increasingly rude e-mails on both sides. But Forrest's point is that Otton could only have known about the spat at that point if someone had passed on the correspondence.

As a West Highland midsummer night finally fades to dimness, Forrest is the topic of heated conversation at the bar of the Kinlochewe Hotel. Mine host Roderick McCall is gloomy and angry by turns. He is furious that tabloid headline writers have called Forrest a Highland hotelier.

''We are the only hotel for 10 miles in either direction and we're getting the abusive e-mails,'' says McCall, who has spent most of the day ringing newspaper editors and radio and TV producers to point out that he is the Kinlochewe hotelier and Tom Forrest runs a B&B. ''They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but these things stick.''

He and Lorraine Reynoldson are in their fifth season at Kinlochewe and after considerable investment, and are about to jump from one VisitScotland star to three. Lorraine, who is keen to keep publicity to the absolute minimum, adds: ''We have had plenty of gay couples here, both men and women. They tend to be people in long-term relationships and they are never a problem.'' McCall adds: ''They are good fun and for every (pounds) 1 other people spend, they spend (pounds) 1.50,'' confirming that the pink pound has arrived in Wester Ross.

Elsewhere in the village no-one wants to talk about the subject. ''I think he was within his rights to do what he did. It's his home,'' says the village diplomat. Tourism, though,

is the lifeblood of the community, and whatever their own thoughts they are not going to express them in public.

The question is: whatever his views, was Forrest's rebuttal to the gay couple legal? James Chalmers, lecturer in law at Aberdeen University, says that legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation which came into effect last year only applies to employment. ''However, the law does prevent people who run hotels refusing accommodation to people for capricious reasons,'' he says.

''There is a precedent from 1949 - long before there was any discrimination legislation - when a West Indian cricketer who was turned away from a hotel was able to bring a successful case.'' He adds that there is no legal difference between a hotel and innkeeper and people offering B&B in their home.

Neil Stevenson, deputy director of Legal Education and head of Diversity at the Law Society of Scotland, says: ''Although new regulations came into force in December 2003 to protect people from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation, the rules only apply to employment and vocational training. While people would be protected in most cases from being refused goods and services on the grounds of gender, race and disability, in the case of sexual orientation people are left with little recourse in the law.''

Now, at 57, as he leans on his stick outside the neat house where pine martens come to the garden and he feeds his guests on home-grown vegetables, Tom Forrest is inclined, perhaps belatedly, to listen to his wife's wishes that he stops speaking out against homosexuality.

The e-mails keep arriving both for and against his stand. At the

last count there were more than 1000. He claims there have been far more congratulatory than abusive ones, but his comments have attracted people with their own agenda. He's upset that the BNP has added a link from its website to his. He says: ''I am not a racist. My nephew is about to marry a Zulu girl and my nieces have married people of other races. We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns.''

Heading north and west from London has always meant free-dom, a soft air, an unpeopled

landscape where time runs at a

different pace, but orientation has usually involved maps and compasses rather than sexuality. Here, a culture clash between metropolitan man and his Celtic cousins is not exactly new.