SUNSHINE IN LEITH
The Mystery Diner explores Fingal, a former lighthouse tender that now hosts 23 sumptuous suites, an upmarket cocktail bar and a top-draw restaurant
The Mystery Diner falls in love with the decadent floating hotel Fingal
Afew years ago I had the good fortune to share a round of golf with a former naval officer who told me about his attempts to acquire one of the Northern Lighthouse Board’s ships. The idea, he explained, was to turn it into a top-end floating hotel to service the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith. The tale was related almost in passing but he had piqued my curiosity and I’ve followed Fingal’s evolution with great interest ever since.
Unlike so many such goose-chases, this was one where the bird was eventually snared. After a mammoth refit that took two years and cost £5 million, the good ship Fingal was reborn. The ship was no longer chugging around Scotland’s coastline delivering supplies to the lighthouse keepers of the Board’s 206 often necessarily remote outposts. Instead, it had been stripped right back, had two decks added, and had been converted into exactly the sort of peerless nautical experience that the former rear admiral had outlined as we hacked our way around an East Lothian links several years ago. Moored in Leith, a few hundred yards from the Britannia mothership, it now provides 23
sumptuous bedrooms for anyone with the desire and the means to see Leith in luxury.
The makeover was not total though, and the vessel has retained much of its character and all of its nameplate, which derives from the basalt columns which form a stunning sea cave on the isle of Staffa. Known in Gaelic as ‘An Uamh Binn’ or the ‘Cave of Music’,
Fingal’s Cave was immortalised in Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, but was also painted by JMW Turner, preserved in verse by Wordsworth and Keats, and cooed over by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Given how high-falutin’ the whole floating edifice has now become, Fingal is an appropriately sophisticated yet nautical name.
Once you’re on board, it still feels as if you’re on a boat. For a start, just down the road, Britannia was built for comfort and leisure, so the ceilings are appreciably higher than on Fingal, where thanks to being 6ft 5in my head was close to the ceiling. Also, Fingal is not completely flat; quite why you have a camber on a boat that doesn’t move and has just undergone a refit remains something of a mystery, but actually I quite liked the sense that we were all aboard. And if you ever forget that this was once a fully functioning boat, just go and explore the engine room, which is now behind a clear glass wall (the engines are still coated in grease and you can still catch whiffs of that distinctive oily smell that all boat engines exude).
All of the rooms are named after the Board’s various lighthouses, with the Skerryvore Suite the grandest of them all (although personally, I’d have opted for Muckle Flugga, the Stevensons’ crowning glory and the lighthouse off the end of Scotland’s most northerly inhabited island, Unst). Skerryvore may have its own private dining facility, an extra room and its own large private deck, but actually all of the rooms are surprisingly large, all have access to the deck area, and all have been refitted with a commendable eye for detail.
That attention to the smaller things was in evidence once
‘Fingal is named after the stunning basalt columns which form a sea cave on Staffa’
we went up to the top deck for dinner in the Lighthouse Bar. On one of the few dry days this summer, with the sun streaming in through the windows, this felt like a sainted spot as we sipped pre-dinner cocktails and watched the world go by.
Dinner – which is also open to non-residents
– is taken on the top deck, in booths that feel enclosed but which allow you to look out over the water to the customs house (don’t worry, after 5pm the place is as quiet as the grave). There’s also a ballroom down in the hold, but that tends to be for big corporate events or weddings.
Sitting up in the restaurant, with its copper ceiling and art deco flourishes, we began to cast an eye over the menu. A lengthy chat to the waitress revealed that the provenance of the ingredients is all as local as possible, which in the case of the cold meats starter meant it comes from the wonderful and determinedly authentic East Coast Charcuterie, which is about 200 yards from my house and just a mile from Fingal.
If that was as good as expected, Mrs MD discovered that the oysters – her starter of choice – came from the small West Coast island she hails from and were served with her drink of choice, a Bloody Mary. So far, so brilliant.
Our main courses were equally solid. I opted for the slow-cooked beef bavette, which turned out to be succulent but over-salted, and came with potato rosti, carrots and watercress sauce. The other main was a top-notch but Lilliputian serving of risotto stuffed with foraged chanterelles, shallot confit, broad beans and black truffle.
We rounded off with an excellent Valrhona chocolate fondant, which positively oozed with molten sweetness, and a raspberry parfait with pistachio sponge and candied lemon which was decent enough but struggled to justify the £12 price tag.
In fact whether you’re staying or just visiting for a night, the prices mean this definitely qualifies as a place for a special occasion. The rooms start from £220 a night, while that goes up to £1,200 a night for the Skerryvore.
When it comes to food, the same generally applies. The cocktails are £15 each, although the house wine starts at £25 per bottle, which was a sensible price tag for a nice Macabeo or Garnacha. The food pricing was slightly less benign, with starters at £12-15, mains at £16-22, puddings at £12, and cheese at £14. Not outrageous, but it still meant that by the time you’ve had a cocktail each, a couple of glasses of wine and a three-course meal with service, you have no chance of escaping with a bill of any less than £150 for two.
But then many – including me – will feel that on balance it is worth it on a special occasion for something so unique. So what are you waiting for?