After a long and successful career in hospitality, Anne Davidson, owner of the famed Champany Inn, Linlithgow, has died.
In a statement, the Davidson family announced that Anne had passed on Tuesday 18th November 2025, describing her as ‘a woman at the forefront of the Scottish hospitality industry for over fifty years’.
Anne was born in Dundee in 1946. She always loved cooking and chose to study hospitality management at Robert Gordon’s Catering College in Aberdeen.
She moved to London for her first job at the Westminster Theatre, and while living there she met her husband Clive. They married in 1969 and moved to South Africa.
In 1974, they returned to Scotland, and opened Wyndales House Hotel, in Lanarkshire. It was here that they introduced Braai (BBQ) cooking to Scotland, and what would begin the indoor charcoal grill movement.
In 1977, they moved into Edinburgh’s city centre and took over The Beehive pub in the Grassmarket.
Anne and Clive took over Champany Inn, near Linlithgow, in January 1983, building the restaurant around Scottish produce with ‘an unwavering passion for Scotch beef and South African wine’.
With those preferences, they established an award-winning rural business that today consists of a fine dining steakhouse, 16 bedrooms, The Chop & Ale House bistro and a wine shop.
Champany became an institution where Anne Davidson was very much at the helm, and where her son Jason leads today.
“Affectionately known as ‘Mrs D’, she led her team from the front. She was on the floor for every service, where her attention to detail was exemplary – things simply had to be done properly,” recalled the family statement.
“She will always be remembered as a devoted, energetic and kind host who was an inspiration to many who knew her. Her impeccable fashion and style was renowned, as were the shoes that ran her around the restaurant.
“Guests on their first visit, or as regulars who returned, were met with ‘Welcome to Champany’ as they walked in the door.
“Anne knew the power of hospitality – bringing people together to sit round a table with food and wine, share stories, laughter and experiences. This was what Anne knew she could enable and it brought her such pride. When she wasn’t working, she was hosting friends and family at home – nothing made her happier.”
Anne is survived by her children, Jason, Anna and Lucy and her cherished granddaughter Mirren.
There will be a private family funeral. Early next year, there will be a public memorial service arranged to celebrate her life.
Under the Davidson’s tenure, Champany Inn accrued numerous awards and plaudits, including Restaurant of the Year Outside London 2017, Food and Travel Awards; Restaurant of the Year 2014, CIS Excellence Awards; a Michelin Star awarded in 2008 and held for three years; Meat Restaurant of the Year 1999, Restaurateurs’ Restaurant of the Year, Hotel and Restaurant Magazine; The Catey Award for Wine, Caterer Magazine, 1990; and Cellar of the Year 1989, Egon Ronay Guide.
The Restaurant was featured as one of the ‘50 Best Restaurants in the World’ in Courvoisier’s Book of the Best.
More recently – March 2023 – Champany Inn won the number one spot in The Times’ ‘Five of the best Steak & burger joints in Scotland’.
John Lanchester of Esquire Magazine wrote: “The best steak I’ve ever eaten is served at the Champany Inn outside Linlithgow in Scotland: a truly outstanding restaurant and one I would recommend unreservedly.”
Writing in Scotland on Sunday, Richard Bath stated “Make no mistake, this is one of our [country’s] great culinary gems.”
