4 AA Star listed Georgian country house situated in 400 acres in the heart of Fife with 2 restaurants, therapy treatments and golf course.

Balbirnie is a small luxury Georgian country house hotel situated within 400 acres of beautiful parkland, by the village of Markinch in the heart of Fife. Rated AA 4 Stars for 17 years, signifying Balbirnie as one of the top 200 hotels in the UK.

The hotel is superbly located right between Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and very close to the picturesque East coast of Scotland with its many quaint fishing villages. Edinburgh is only 14 miles and the stunning scenery of Perthshire is an easy drive away and the vibrant city of Glasgow is just over an hour from Balbirnie.

Privately owned and personally managed since opening as a hotel 25 years ago, Balbirnie House is widely recognised today as one of the country’s finest small luxury hotels, combining understated luxury with superb service and outstanding value.

Offering 31 individually designed bedrooms, each quite unique in style and character. For a special stay, you may wish to enjoy one of the deluxe rooms or suites, many of which are enormous rooms with large comfortable beds and magnificent views over the gardens. Bedrooms are located over the three floors of the original mansion house, with a number of rooms on the ground floor for guests who would prefer not to take the staircase. There is also have one ground floor twin bedded room with wheelchair access.

The hotel has a choice of dining options, enjoy the Bistro created from the old kitchens of the house. The Bistro offers casual dining, fantastic value, delicious and authentic Bistro cooking. Or for more formal dining why not sample The Orangery which offers classic Scotland on a plate, and has become one of Fife’s most special destination restaurants. All dishes priced individually allowing you to choose as you wish.

Voted one of Scotland's five most romantic restaurants by The Scotsman newspaper and past recipient Scotland's Hotel Restaurant of the Year.

For those of our guests who prefer to stay within the perimeter of the estate during their stay, many pursuits are available, including doorstep golf on the challenging par 71 parlkand golf course, jogging trails and woodland walks. For those who have a keen interest in history, Balbirnie even has its own stone circle and stob cross. The park is home to an abundance of wildlife (including a family of deer) and to a vast selection of plants and trees, including the East of Scotland’s largest single collection of specimen rhododendron trees. Within the park is also Balbirnie craft centre selling handcrafted gold and silver jewellery, pottery, leather goods and metal works.

Inspirations

Balbirnie House Hotel is part of the following Inspirations:

10 Hotels to Live Like a Lord in 2019 by Adrian Mourby

"In 1817 Lieutenant General Robert Balfour of Balbirnie had a Greek Revival style house built for himself by the architect Richard Crichton. There had been several Balfour houses on this site near Glenrothes since 1640. (Sometimes it seems that each aristocratic generation is only interested in demolishing what the previous generation achieved). The Balbirnie House of 1817 was however the last. It was constructed in the short-lived Greek Revival style which was big in Scotland but mainly absent in England.

Lieutenant-General Robert Balfour of Balbirnie was a son of John Balfour, Fifth of Balbirnie. His younger brother James was a Member of Parliament and grandfather of Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1905.

General Balfour had been an officer in the 2nd Dragoons and the Fife Light Horse. In 1815 the Dragoons, reorganised as the Scots Greys, saw some impressive but ultimately disorganised action at the Battle of Waterloo, losing their commanding officer in a cavalry charge that petered out on reaching the French lines.

Back in Scotland Balfour spent £16,000 on extending the family house and giving it a Greek makeover, with an Athenian portico on its south-east elevation. At the same time, the landscape gardener Thomas White provided plans for the improvement of the 18th-century parkland using specially seeds sent from India.

In 1969 Balbirnie House was sold to a development corporation that was building the new town of Glenrothes. They laid out a golf course in the grounds and converted the house into council offices. Subsequently the house was sold to a private owner who redeveloped it as a 31-bedroom hotel which opened in 1990. Today the restaurant in the Balfour family’s Orangery is one of the best restaurants in Scotland.

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The Top Ten Resplendent Wedding Venues by Liz Coggins

"Balbirnie House Hotel is a historic Georgian mansion that has old world elegance and charm. An award winning wedding venue, the Gallery dates back to 1777 and its arched ceiling and windows give it an authentic Georgian atmosphere whilst The Orangery, with its tinted glass ceiling, has wonderful views of the 400 acres of parkland from its floor to ceiling windows."