28 best places to stay in Scotland for your next getaway

Ah, the soft thwack of a golf ball and the plop of a fly luring a brown trout in the chalky reaches of the River Tweed. These are common sounds on this country sports estate formerly owned by the Duke of Roxburghe, not that you’d hear them from your sumptuous bedroom, mind. There are many other reasons to stay here, not least the grand restaurant, bar and alfresco spa. Even the name seems perfect, conjuring up fantasies of a German manor, but one benefiting from Scottish hospitality.

2. Cameron House, Loch Lomond

This place is 200 years old, not that you’d know it from the speedboat whizzing across the loch, seaplane tied to the pier and fashionable lounge and bar. All of this, plus the enormous leisure club, swanky restaurants and bars, provides a psychological boost to those from Glasgow seeking time away from the city. It’s also a great escape for others wanting to be transplanted to the Highlands but short on time — a catalogue of activities including hiking, biking, boating and falconry with views of Ben Lomond, whose presence shows across the water on mist-free days, is a given. It’s not by chance the likes of Barack Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio have stayed.

3. Mhor 84, Stirling

Monachyle Mhor steals the hotel headlines in Balquhidder Glen, but its little sister, Mhor 84, has the same boutique buzz and great food at a fraction of the cost. Run by the gleefully upbeat Lewis clan, the self-styled motel — it gets its name from the nearby A84 — is an artful marriage of mismatched chairs and upcycled tables, cowhide cushions and mustard bedspreads. A fireside bar draws locals, walkers and good-time Glaswegians, especially on “Thank Folk It’s Thursday” Celtic music nights. Book a room at the back if road noise keeps you awake.

4. Gleneagles, Perthshire

It was called the “Riviera in the Highlands” when it opened in 1924, and thanks to the undisclosed gazillions spent by its new owners, the grande dame of Scottish country house hotels is all art deco glitz again. What hasn’t changed is the extensive offering of outdoor activities, including shooting, fishing, off-road driving and, most famously, golf. It’s not cheap, but it’s great for families — with children’s clubs and teenage zones — and has an equestrian centre, Espa spa and Scotland’s only two-Michelin-star restaurant.

5. Market Street Hotel, Edinburgh

Market Street Hotel (Booking.com)

The entrance may be unassuming, but take the lift to the seventh floor and suddenly you’re in an industrial-chic lounge with a champagne bar, retro crushed-velvet chairs and huge windows running the length of the room. Artwork is curated by the City Art Centre and the rooftop terrace is a favourite for after-work drinks. Rooms are no less chic: white oak walls, bare pendant bulbs, free booze in the minibar. It is the only Scottish hotel in the Design Hotels collection.

6. North Lodge, Aberdeenshire

Go off-piste at this three-bedroom Georgian cottage on a 30,000-acre estate in deepest Royal Deeside. Half an hour equidistant from Stonehaven and the start of the eastern Cairngorms, North Lodge was beautifully restored in 2018, styled in gorgeous greys, teal and red, with white floorboards. It even has its own river cabin, with a barbecue and hot tub, on the banks. There are camp beds to spend the night there.

7. Five Turrets, Borders

The Five Turrets (Booking.com)

Take an 1850s coach house, add a photographer/weaver couple with stacks of creativity and you get the Five Turrets, a baronial pile given a stylish facelift on the edge of Selkirk. Reopened in 2018, the four-bedroom house has a striking triple-height kitchen and mezzanine lounge, decorated with the couple’s landscape shots and wall hangings; bright furnishings and quirky lighting add flair. The billiard room, piano room and orchard garden are bonuses — likewise pints at the Fleece, a one-minute walk away.

8. Gypsy Palace, Borders

This cute, two-bedroom jewel box of a cottage was home to Esther Faa Blythe, queen of Scotland’s gypsies, until her death in 1883. Expect stained glass and ruby-red walls, fireplace gargoyles and 19th-century portraits. Bring walking boots: the cottage is wedged between the Cheviot Hills and the pretty village of Kirk Yetholm, where the Border pub marks the end of the Pennine Way. A reclaimed station waiting room is now a cosy summer house, with views across the enclosed garden to the Bowmont Valley.

9. Auchrannie Resort, Isle of Arran

This island escape has six couples’ retreats, with hot tubs, a spa — which you’ll need after days hiking on 874m (2,867ft) Goatfell — and three excellent restaurants, but families are what it does best. Some spa-wing rooms have a separate bunk room, but go for a snug three-bedroom lodge, or a two-bedroom family retreat, with hot tub and fire pit, due to open this spring. There’s an outdoor activity centre on site, a three-tier play barn, sports hall and pools, and a string of sandy beaches and hill walks on your doorstep.

• Best family hotels in Scotland

10. The Bonnie Badger, East Lothian

The Bonnie Badger (Booking.com)

A sliced five iron from Muirfield, the Bonnie Badger is the latest venture from Tom Kitchin, Scotland’s youngest Michelin star winner, and his interior-designer wife, Michaela. A short walk from the beautiful beach at Gullane, this 12-bedroom pub has been given a minimalist Scandi revamp, styled in a seascape palette of foggy greys and inky blues, with bedding by Laura Thomas of North Berwick and Nordic birch forest wallpaper by the Edinburgh designer Mairi Helena. Food, as you’d expect, is delicious, with Kitchin’s “from nature to plate” ethos writ large on a menu packed with local meat and seafood.

11. Ship Inn, Fife

This East Neuk institution has a beer garden right on Elie’s seawalls which doubles as a pavilion for white-flanelled beach cricket. It was the AA’s Scottish pub of the year in 2016, and the bar is popular with Edinburgh families visiting for fish and chips on Sundays. An upstairs restaurant flooded with North Sea light serves seafood landed down the coast in Pittenweem. Roll up to one of six blue-panelled, white-shuttered bedrooms, all but two of them gazing across the sea, sand and Fife Coastal Path to Bass Rock.

12. Crieff Hydro, Perthshire

Crieff Hydro (Booking.com)

Originally a Victorian spa retreat, this Center-Parcs-meets-mountains in 900 Highland-lite acres has a golf course, riding stables, tennis courts and free kids’ clubs. There is an adult-only spa and pool for nursing bruises after zip-lining and forest laser tag, as well as six restaurants, and a whisky bar for when children are in the 40-seat cinema. The main house has family rooms and 55 hillside cabins have Ochill Hills views.

• Best spa hotels in Scotland

13. The Torridon, Highland

“Lake District on steroids” reads one guest-book comment. Fifty miles west of Inverness, in a spectacular coastal corner of the Scottish Highlands, the former Victorian shooting lodge has grand lawns leading to Loch Torridon, with a wall of Munros rising above. Guests get a free activity each day with the hotel’s outdoor centre; a grand, firelit lounge is just right for après-yomp canapés before dinner, followed by a choice of over 350 single malts and gins in the snug. Pub grub and big-screen TV more your speed? Hit the sister inn next door.

14. Isle of Raasay Distillery, Highland

A distillery with rooms? What could go wrong? Twenty-five minutes by ferry from Skye, Raasay is a heather-clad back of beyond — Bonnie Prince Charlie hid here after his defeat at Culloden. Come for coastal walks, wild swimming, otter spotting and kayaking — and since the distillery was opened in 2014, for whisky tours and sipping gin, then rolling into bed in one of six modern rooms in the attached Victorian villa. Ask for a sea view for the vista across to the Cuillins.

• Best distillery tours in Scotland

15. The Treehouses at Lanrick, Stirling

The Treehouses at Lanrick

When the light goes out on the day isn’t it better to retreat into the trees, rather than a bricks-and-mortar hotel? That’s the hook of these five sustainably-minded, stilted woodland cabins, which can sleep groups and families of up to five. Each treehouse has its own charm — one has upcycled furniture and an outside copper bath, another has a rope bridge and outdoor shower — and the sense is time spent with the sycamores and birch here is an all-year event, not just in summer. Our tip? Rise with the woodpeckers for the songbird chorus.

lanricktreehouses.co.uk

16. Eilean Sionnach, Isle of Skye

Lighthouse keepers’ cottages can be spartan, but this four-bedroom place below Ornsay lighthouse feels more boutique guesthouse than 19th-century island outpost. A roll-top bathtub stares out to sea, underfloor heating warms the bathrooms, ornate rugs cover flagstone floors beside bookshelves stocked with works by the former owner Gavin Maxwell. The island is cut off by high tide, so you’ll need to phone the boatman, Gus, for lifts to and from Isleornsay Pier, where the Eilean Iarmain hotel has live music at its busy bar and a beer garden looking back to your cottage.

eileansionnach.com

17. Flow, Isle of Lewis

Teetering above the Atlantic at the wild western edge of Lewis, this modern beach hut allows you to look out from huge picture windows across the vast beach of Uig Sands. Alongside a second cabin, Ebb, Flow has a sleek Scandi vibe, with barrelled larch walls and vivid blue sofas matching the colours outside. Walk the beach, feast on fresh seafood at Uig Sands Restaurant, take a wildlife boat trip with the local operator Seatrek, then warm your cockles at Abhainn Dearg Distillery, ten minutes’ stroll inland.

unique-cottages.co.uk/cottages/west-coast/hebrides/fn3-cabin-flow

18. Widgeon, Stirling

Dipping a toe in the Lake of Menteith, this Nordi-chic three-bedroom lodge comes with a separate two-storey snug, with a sauna, hot tub and floor-to-ceiling views across the water to Ben Lomond. Right in the heart of the Trossachs, the lodge is one of a dozen or so cabins on the 38-acre Lochend estate, which has a games room, tennis court, and fishing boats, as well as Nick Nairn’s cooking school and pizza restaurant.

lochend-chalets.com/widgeon-lodge

19. Traigh House, Highland

Right above a sliver of white sand and turquoise shallows, 40 miles west of Ben Nevis, this nine-bedroom 18th-century pile is the ultimate base for a big group. The modern kitchen has views through huge windows across to the islands of Rum and Eigg, but otherwise decor is reassuringly old money: a threadbare pool table, wooden toilet seats, giant avocado bathtubs and faded portraits of uniformed relatives. A vast open fire and huge sofas tempt after days outside.

georgegoldsmith.com/property/traigh-house

20. Calgary Bay Cottage, Isle of Mull

The decor is a tad new-build-pine, but this three-bedroom cottage is perfect for young families, with buckets and spades, and a snug upstairs lounge with sloping ceilings, cosy sofas and board games. Much more importantly, it has a superb location on Calgary Bay, a quarter-mile crescent of white dune-backed beach that is probably my favourite in the Inner Hebrides. Rainbow-coloured Tobermory is a 30-minute drive east; Calgary art gallery and café is a magical 20-minute walk up a woodland trail dotted with art installations.

isleofmullcottages.com/cottage/calgary-bay-cottage.html

• Best beaches in Scotland

21. Blue Cabin by the Sea, East Lothian

“The coviest of coves,” is how Stephen Fry described the setting when staying at this snug, blue timber beach hut. Reached via a secret smugglers’ tunnel, the 1900 holiday house stands above a shell-strewn beach and 18th-century harbour, eight miles down the coast from Dunbar. Decor is a Tim Burton fantasy of blues and bright kelpy greens, with a stuffed seabird here and shell-crusted mirror there; seagrass Orkney chairs beckon beside the fire. Children will love the bunk room, although you may have to fight them for the cute alcoved double bed.

bluecabinbythesea.co.uk

22. Ferryman’s Cottage, Argyll and Bute

Only a low stone wall separates this solid 1920s cottage from the beach that featured in the music video to the 1977 Wings hit Mull of Kintyre, and where a lifesize Antony Gormley statue now stares out from the rocks toward the summits of Arran. One of four Landmark Trust properties on the bay — there is also a Victorian cottage, a 16th-century castle and a grand house sleeping 13 — the three-bedroom Ferryman’s Cottage epitomises unfussy charm, with stripped pine floors, the odd antique and two fireplaces.

landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/ferrymans-cottage-6949

23. South Shore Cottage, Highland

This wildly romantic two-bedroom croft is the remotest of eight cottages on car-free Eilean Shona island, reached via a 20-minute boat ride. With no slipway, you need to jump ashore, then schlep your bags up a muddy path. There’s no electricity, just gas lamps and candles; hot water comes from the wood-burning stove. But by Crusoe, what rewards: styled by the island’s owner, Vanessa Branson, the wood-panelled cottage is a hipster dream of crushed-velvet sofas and kilims above its own sandy bay.

eileanshona.com/the-cottages/south-shore-cottage

24. Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, Highland

A one-mile walk from Corrour, Britain’s remotest mainline train station, this converted boathouse sits alone on its lochside perch at the edge of Rannoch Moor. Amazingly, the overnight sleeper from London to Fort William stops at Corrour, so you can be in the office on Friday and surrounded by Corbetts and Munros first thing on Saturday morning, with roe deer, pine martens and otters for neighbours. Loch Ossian hostel is powered by a wind turbine and solar panels, with compost toilets and a reed-bed water filtration system.

hostellingscotland.org.uk

25. Inver, Argyll and Bute

Inver was big news in foodie circles when it launched in a bothy on Loch Fyne in 2015. Opened by the Noma disciple Pam Brunton (The Good Food Guide’s chef of the year of 2020), the restaurant serves food described as “eye-opening, enlivening, as bracing as a dip in the loch”. It was just a shame that you couldn’t stay there. Well, now you can, in one of four larch-clad modern bothies, with hand-dyed Hebridean wool cushions and big windows overlooking the loch.

inverrestaurant.co.uk

26. Applegarth House, Dumfries and Galloway

Previously the manse for the church next door, this handsome red sandstone B&B near Lockerbie turns 300 this year, but has surely never looked better. There are two elegant rooms, both with antiques, fresh flowers and tall windows overlooking the garden. The owners, Kirsteen and Andrew, welcome dogs, which are free to curl up in front of the open fireplace in the lounge; Kirsteen keeps home-baked teatime treats waiting for when you get back from walks along the River Annan and the nearby Eskrigg nature reserve.

sawdays.co.uk/britain/scotland/dumfries-galloway/applegarth-house

27. The Grandtully, Perthshire

Highland hotels can be quiet and drab, but this buzzing eight-bedroom hotel, not far from Pitlochry, has oodles of city sass. Opened last year, the Grandtully is run by Andrew Rowley, formerly bar manager at the hip Edinburgh restaurant Ondine, who has built the hotel around an industrial-chic bar that opens onto a roadside terrace. Room decor is modern and bold, with a lush turquoise sofa beckoning from the whisky lounge; food is a seasonal march around the surrounding glens. The chef, Chris, runs cooking classes upriver at its smart sister hotel, Ballintaggart Farm.

ballintaggart.com

28. The Fife Arms, Aberdeenshire

Reopened in December 2018 after a pricey refurb by the art-world power couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth, this is one of Scotland’s hottest properties. There is a Lucian Freud in reception and a Picasso in the lounge; rooms are a riot of William Morris wallpaper and blood-red brocade. Yet it is still a no-nonsense Victorian coaching inn, with wonky pitch floors, faded Persian rugs and a family-friendly pub (with a winged stag flying above the bar). Deeside walks are near by and Balmoral is 15 minutes by car. Finally, a hotel to match Braemar’s jaw-dropping Highland setting.

thefifearms.com

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