The charm of Edinburgh, if you live in London, is that it has all the familiar trappings of a capital – the shops! The National Gallery! – only it is blessedly compact, with a spectacular topography. Plus there’s the lure of its literary history, cobbled streets and beautiful architecture.
If you are planning to escape the capital for a Scottish weekend, you can get there in four and a half hours by train, taking in some of the finest views in Britain from Durham northwards along the sea.
Here are three of the best hotels in the city, housed in historic buildings and a brief – less than 15 minutes - walk from the city’s principal Waverley Station.
100 Princes Street
Located right on iconic Princes Street, this is the Scottish capital’s smartest new luxury hotel. The building was originally the headquarters of the Royal Overseas League members’ club, and the boutique hotel still has a distinctly clubby vibe, with artfully discrete signage outside and a bar and restaurant just for hotel guests.
The first Scottish property from British hospitality group Red Carnation Hotels, the stylish city centre spot has just 30 rooms ranging from compact singles to spacious suites – the best come with views of Edinburgh Castle, which looks particularly magical when lit up at night.
The interiors are rich and inviting, with bespoke tartans by Scottish designer Araminta Campbell on the walls and a striking hand-painted mural in the stairwell. For an elegant weekend getaway within walking distance of all of Edinburgh’s major sights, 100 Princes Street is hard to beat.
Rooms start from £450 on a B&B basis. 100princes-street.com
Gleneagles Townhouse, St Andrew’s Square
For 200 years, until 2006, Gleneagles was a functioning bank. In which case we’re envious of the lucky clerks who worked in such a splendid building. The fine architectural details have been retained since it became a hotel, from the the ornate cornicing and stone columns to lovely floor tiles and stained glass. The rooms are characterful as well as luxurious. Who doesn’t like a roll-top bath with aromatic bath salts? And you’ll start your stay in good humour because there’s a little glass chest of tiny pastries when you arrive.
The restaurant, The Spence, is in the old banking hall with its fine ceiling plasterwork, and it is very good indeed, celebrating local and Scottish ingredients with terrific flair. I got there on Sunday in time for the sirloin roast, with balloons of Yorkshire pudding, followed by the most sybaritic ice cream. There’s a great and interesting wine selection. While breakfast is substantial, with good black pudding and potato scone.
It's a members’ club as well as a hotel, with a rooftop bar boasting fine views over the square – lovely for a summer evening – and a spa and fitness centre downstairs in the old vaults. I tried the Cyrotherapy room where you can stand and freeze for three minutes, possibly after a sauna. It really does sharpen you up for the day.
Rates at Gleneagles Townhouse start from £495 (room only). gleneagles.com/townhouse
Virgin Hotel, Victoria Street
This is a fun hybrid: a historic, mid-nineteenth-century building in Scottish baronial style which houses a Virgin hotel with neon signs, crimson décor and high camp vibe. Think of bubbly Sir Richard Branson twinned with a stately old Victorian gentleman, and you get the gist. It boasts a wonderful location on a lively, gracefully curved cobbled street. Its proportions are startling – one side drops steeply down to Cowgate – but it's navigable.
The first neon sign says “You’re welcome”, and so you’re made to feel by the friendly and helpful staff. There are humorous touches; the books for browsing are kept in the Funny Library, the downstairs restaurant Eve is signalled by another neon sign: “Are you tempted?” and your room’s little Smeg fridge is in the trademark red.
The bed is enormous and comfortable, and the room is open plan with the sink and mirrors at the entrance. The only drawback is that all the rooms, except Sir Richard’s, come with a shower rather than bath (boo!).
The restaurant, the Commons, sources Scottish ingredients and makes the most of them, from local scallops to excellent meat; mine was a delicious and succulent Tamworth pork chop. Later in the week, there’s also a shared table, where a chef presides over a specialist tasting menu. The weekend tea is served early (noon - 3pm) under the fine cupola and is an eclectic mix of wraps and focaccia by way of sandwiches, scones, a savoury and some very good desserts, served on pretty china by staff who appear out of nowhere. It’s almost as much a lunch as a tea, but, by comparison with ridiculous London prices, it’s a bargain at £35. My one quibble is with breakfast: porridge with toasted pine nuts? No! But it tasted just fine.
Prices from £309 inc VAT. virginhotels.com/edinburgh
The Intercontinental at the George, George Street
This is the Intercontinental as you’ve probably never seen it, in a building made up of five Georgian townhouses with an early Victorian façade, which has been a hotel since the 1880s. In fact the George may be the only Intercontinental where some of the floorboards creak reassuringly. Positioned on George Street, off St Andrew’s Square, which is a 10 minute walk from the station, it couldn’t be more central.
A former insurance house, the entrance is distinguished, imposing, and sensitively restored. The feel isn’t old fashioned, however; the pictures and décor are a mixture of contemporary and traditional. The men at the entrance are in tartan trousers or kilts; you can see the American visitors perk up at the sight. And all the staff are friendly and helpful.
Rooms are elegant, comfortable and well appointed, with big beds and a welcoming bottle of fizz when you arrive. There are thoughtful touches such as an iron in the wardrobe, and the room comes with ground coffee with a proper filter, not just a Nespresso machine, and the near-obligatory Tunnock’s wafer. And let’s not forget the toiletries: Byredo, if you please, and, as is the norm nowadays, it comes in big refillable bottles which you jolly well leave there. If you do want a bath in your room, you need to request one.
There’s a restaurant in the hotel, Le Petit Beefbar, which majors on beef, obviously, and is situated in the old printing room. I tell you this place has lots of history. Like I say, it doesn’t feel like an impersonal hotel chain but a place with history.
Prices start at £230 a night. edinburgh.intercontinental.com
Prestonfield House
Think of all the things you want from the perfect Scottish hotel and Prestonfield House may have them all. It’s less than ten minutes by taxi from Waverley station, which you’ll chug into from London, and yet somehow in the country, in 20 acres of its own, and next to 650 acres of royal Holyrood Park. The house dates from 1687 but its foundations are much older, going back to a Cistercian monastery on the same site. It’s the first place where rhubarb was grown in Scotland from seeds brought from China, meaning its descendants are still in the garden. The rhubarb theme is evident indoors in the stripey carpets and wallpaper and the rhubarb pink ceiling in the restaurant (aptly called Rhubarb).
If you like original family portraits there are any number here — and, come to that, sixteenth century tapestries from Mortlake — but there are also clever design elements to lighten the mood. Think trompe l’oeil silk swag wallpaper right next to the luxuriously draped curtains, and leopard print carpet and footstools to help you climb into your large, comfortable bed.
Historic houses can be staid; not this one. Each of the 18 bedrooms has its own pieces, its own flair. And if that weren’t enough, the toiletries are Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet. James Thomson, the owner, has a taste for stage design and it shows everywhere you turn. There’s a Roberts radio playing when you come into your room, and the scent of delicious fragrance sticks; you feel spoiled from the off.
The restaurant is very good indeed. At breakfast you can have the full Scottish, so pudding (white and black) as well as bacon, sausage and the lot. And if you precede this with porridge, you’re set up for the day. There’s a simple, less expensive menu available at lunchtime (bring on the fish pie) and at dinner the full works; I had a memorable dressed crab under a sweetened crust, a fine Chateaubriand and an excellent tarte tatin. Yum. There’s an excellent wine list, including superb Beaune. Tea is a thoughtful combination of the traditional and dainty, so there are savoury tartlets and beetroot blini followed by sandwiches and rolls (there was a very good Coronation egg), scones with flavoursome jam and a dainty dessert layer. At £60, it’s cheaper than the London equivalent. Staff are friendly and attentive.
Edinburgh grandees come here, plus occasional royals (the Queen Mother was a fan of the house), and I can see why. Indeed, the old dining room now used for private parties, with its painted panels showing the sights of the Grand Tour, once hosted the bigwigs of the Scottish Enlightenment; it’s a lovely space. Add to all this that you’re a pleasant 20-minute walk from Arthur’s Seat, and really you can’t ask for more.
Room start at £375. prestonfield.com
The Witchery by the Castle
This is another James Thomson creation, and it’s as theatrical and flamboyant as you could wish for, as well as being unbelievably conveniently situated. The name derives from the execution of a number of suspected witches quite close to the building. Its Gothic fantasy interiors date back to it being a school building. They include little devils on the bathroom windows and painted Tarot motifs on the ceiling of the restaurant. There is a playful imagination at work throughout and an enormous trove of striking and interesting pieces. I mean, how many hotels do you know where there might be a guardsman’s uniform in the corner, or prints of the kings of Scotland or a huge crown suspended from the ceiling? I stayed in the suite which you reach via an actual turret and there was an imposing bust of Queen Victoria, who ensured that visitors were on their best behaviour.
There was, of course, an imposing four poster bed with a little set of steps up to it, but also all the mod-cons: Alexa next to the bed, a Dyson drier. In another room, a huge flat screen TV emerged from the Ottoman at the end of the bed. And you will want to know about the bath: a Victorian roll-top affair with antique taps; you have to be instructed how to let the plug out. The embossed, ox-blood walls are very handsome, with Victorian pictures on them.
Did I mention that you get champagne every night of your stay, in a big ice bucket? And very good chocolates. I passed on breakfast in the restaurant in favour of a continental breakfast in a hamper (so much more fun than a tray) on the dais by the window which overlooks the Royal Mile. The restaurant is atmospheric, all candlelight and darkness by night with a huge bunch of silk flowers suspended from the ceiling. Dinner is very good; Scottish ingredients, including game and fish. My venison cutlets were perfect and so was the mashed potato (always a good test). Ditto my Tarte Tatin — I can’t have enough of it, like this, golden and caramel, served with custard and ice cream.
What a quirky, comfortable, pleasurable hotel this is. I was bewitched.
Rooms start at £575. thewitchery.com
Getting there
Getting to Edinburgh by train takes about four and a half to five hours with LNER, with fares from £30. iner.co.uk
