Art lovers’ hotel judged one of the world’s best
A newly refurbished Highland pile with royal connections has been judged the finest hotel in Scotland. Martin Williams reports
IT’S a former Victorian coaching inn deep in Cairngorms National Park that boasts the finest royal connections and an original Picasso in the drawing room.
Resplendent after a £3 million, twoyear-long transformation, The Fife Arms Hotel was officially opened at the turn of the year by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla.
Now it has been recognised as the one of the best in the world, securing a spot on the prestigious Condé Nast Traveler 2020 Gold List.
The 46-bedroom Fife Arms, which dates back to 1856 and is located in the village of Braemar, has also been judged the best hotel in Scotland.
Conde Nast’s accolade comes after international “power couple” Manuela and Iwan Wirth, who co-own the renowned Hauser and Wirth galleries, breathed new life into the historic 19th-century building, covering its walls with works by the likes of Zhang Enli, Guillermo Kuitca, Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher.
The judges said: “When art-world heavyweights Manuela and Iwan Wirth opened their gallery-restaurant-hotel in Bruton, Somerset in 2014, they mobilised hundreds of thousands of art lovers to the English countryside, and transformed the community.
“Now they’ve hit the bull’s eye again in the Highlands with The Fife Arms, which takes a familiar tartan-clad template and – with love and respect and even a kind of delicacy – blows it to smithereens.
“The Fife Arms is different, however, in that it’s primarily a hotel, not a gallery – though, with works by Picasso, Freud,
Richter and so forth, you could be forgiven for thinking of it as one.”
A spokesman for The Fife Arms, which has already been praised by tastemakers at Tatler, said they were “thrilled” to get the recognition.
The hotel’s garden has strong royal links, with Jinny Blom, who has previously worked with Prince Charles and Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale, asked to design the outdoor space.
And inside, with six open fires in the reception rooms, pine floors and Persian rugs, the regal theme continues.
A pencil and watercolour piece by Queen Victoria, who sketched and painted throughout her life, is proudly on display.
The work is even inscribed with the date she produced it: October 6, 1874.
There is also a life-size Queen Victoria mannequin in the gothic library and royal suites, some featuring four-posters and one with a pair of the monarch’s stockings framed on the wall.
In its review, the magazine said its first impression was that the hotel was an “art-loving Highland pile with its own stag”.
Elaborating, the magazine added: “Not so much a hotel as a kind of chemistry experiment, in which art, landscape, history, culture, fine art and a wild, occasionally surreal sense of humour are thrown together, with explosive results.”
Of the things that should change, it quipped: “Get rid of the Picasso, the Freud and the Richter and replace them with some nice Jack Vettriano prints. Just kidding.”
The Gold List 2020 also features hotels ranging from the palatial yet romantic Cliveden in Berkshire, the ultra-elegant La Bastide de Gordes in Provence and Robert Deniro’s Greenwich Hotel in New York.
The list of more than 100 luxury establishments is curated by Condé Nast Traveller’s editorial team under editor-inchief Melinda Stevens.
It aims to provide inspiration and authoritative critiques for discerning travellers on where to stay around the world. “The brands we have chosen across the world are everything classic and everything outstanding,” said Ms Stevens.
“This year we have selected more hotels than ever, and we hope that our list will inspire our readers to seek out brilliance, wherever they find it, close to home or in some unexpected corner.”
Not so much a hotel as a kind of chemistry experiment