Where?
Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland
Who?
Well-healed travellers and architecture aficionados will fit in well.
Why?
The mercantile confidence of Edinburgh’s New Town reached its climax in the 1840s with the swagger of this magnificent former bank on St Andrew Square. But how do you convert what resembles a fragment of imperial Rome into a contemporary townhouse hotel—especially one that has to follow in the footsteps of a fêted sibling?
Gleneagles Townhouse has risen impressively to the challenge. The domed banking hall, with its gilded plasterwork and soaring granite columns, is now The Spence, a palatial brasserie conceived by London restaurateurs Zoe and Layo Paskin.
After dinner, hotel guests can repair to Lamplighters on the roof terrace, where cocktails—named after the Arts, Trades and Sciences, as personified by six colossal figures breast- ing the parapet—are served against exhilarating views of the city.
The Old and New Towns are easily accessible (with a few steep wynds or closes) on foot, the best way to explore. After a few hours wandering, return to your room to find a cocktail shaker and ice bucket have magically appeared. Here, all is peace, with only the faint, Old-World dinging of the trams audible from the square below.
How?
From £425 a night, excluding breakfast (01313 223780; www.gleneagles.com/ townhouse) Mary Miers
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