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The Best Luxury Hotels
The Howard (Edinburgh; tel. 0131/557-3500; www.thehoward.com): Three adjacent Georgian-style town houses in an upscale neighborhood have undergone millions of pounds' worth of renovations, creating the most alluring accommodations in a city filled with fine hotels. A restaurant in one of the cellars serves meals inspired by Scottish traditions.
Holyrood Hotel (Edinburgh; tel. 0131/550-4500; www.holyrood-hotel.com): This deluxe charmer launched itself into the millennium when it was designated "Hotel of the Year in Scotland" by the Automobile Association. Located near the new Scottish Parliament, the Holyrood is a bastion of comfort with luxury furnishings.
The Malmaison (Leith, outside Edinburgh; tel. 0131/468-5000; www.malmaison.com): Malmaison is at the port of Leith, about a 15-minute ride northeast of Edinburgh's center. Named after Joséphine's mansion outside Paris, it celebrates the Auld Alliance of France and Scotland, and was created from a 1900 Victorian building. Malmaison once housed indigent seamen, but today it's an oasis of chic.
Greywalls Hotel (East Lothian; tel. 01620/842-144; www.greywalls.co.uk): Although Sir Edward Lutyens designed dozens of opulent Edwardian homes throughout Britain, this is one of the few that's been converted into a hotel. Built in 1901 in what architects praise as perfect harmony with its setting, Greywalls features walled gardens designed by the doyenne of eccentric turn-of-the-20th-century landscape architects, Gertrude Jekyll. This national treasure, representing the Empire's most ostentatious days, is eccentric but eminently comfortable.
Knockinaam Lodge (Portpatrick; tel. 01776/810-471; www.knockinaamlodge.com): Memories of Winston Churchill's clandestine meetings with General Eisenhower, a beacon of hope during the darkest days of World War II, pervade the Knockinaam. Today, the late-Victorian country house is as well upholstered and wryly sedate as you'd expect from a top-notch hotel with such a pedigree. Its restaurant is always included on critics' lists of the best of Scotland.
Hotel du Vin (Glasgow; tel. 0141/339-2001; www.onedevonshiregardens.com): This is the best-groomed building in a neighborhood filled with similar sandstone-fronted town houses. Ring the doorbell and an Edwardian-costumed maid will answer, curtsy, and usher you inside as if you're an extra in a Merchant-Ivory film. This re-creation of a high-bourgeois Scottish home from the early 1900s boasts antique furnishings and discreetly concealed modern comforts.
Fairmont St. Andrews Bay Golf Resort & Spa (St. Andrews; tel. 01334/837-000; www.fairmont.com): This is the premier government-rated five-star hotel of eastern Scotland, lying right outside "the home of golf," as the town of St. Andrews is so often called. Boasting two championship golf courses, the finest rooms and cuisine in the area, and a to-die-for spa and health club, the resort is the creation of two entrepreneurs from the southern U.S. state of Georgia. Did we mention that Prince William is a member of the health club?
The Gleneagles Hotel (Auchterarder; tel. 01764/662-231; www.gleneagles.com): This is Britain's greatest golf hotel, a government-rated five-star resort that also offers such extras as a deluxe spa and hunting excursions. Better than ever after major renovations and expansion, it is also a gourmet citadel with one of Scotland's most awarded chefs, Andrew Fairlie, overseeing those pots and pans.
Kinnaird Estate (Dunkeld; tel. 01796/482-440; www.kinnairdestate.com): An 18th-century hunting lodge for the duke of Atholl, Kinnaird dominates an enormous estate -- 3,646 hectares (9,000 acres) of moor, mountain, and forest. You'll find all the accouterments of a British country house in high-Edwardian style. The supremely comfortable interiors contrast dramatically with the tempests of the great outdoors, and the dining room is among the finest in Scotland.
Inverlochy Castle (near Fort William; tel. 01397/702-177; www.inverlochycastlehotel.com): This castle was built in 1863 by Lord Abinger in a style that set into stone the most high-blown hopes of Scottish Romantics. Today, lovers can follow in the footsteps of Queen Victoria amid the frescoed walls of this Scottish baronial hideaway.
Culloden House (Inverness; tel. 01463/790-461; www.cullodenhouse.co.uk): If you'd like to sleep where Bonnie Prince Charlie did, head for this Adam-style Georgian mansion on 16 hectares (40 acres) of parkland. Scottish tradition appears at every turn, from the grand lounge to the sound of a bagpiper on the grounds. Dinner in the Adam Room is an elegant affair, with French culinary skills applied to the finest Scottish produce.
Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle (Dornoch; tel. 01862/894-600; www.carnegieclub.co.uk): Andrew Carnegie called his glorious Highland castle and estate Heaven on Earth, and so it is. A private residential golf-and-sporting club, it stands on a 2,835-hectare (7,000-acre) estate in one of Europe's last great wilderness areas. It was owned by the Carnegie family until the early 1980s, and is one of the few places left where you can see how the privileged of the Gilded Age lived.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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