"Oh, who doesn’t adore the dark and brooding drama of Edinburgh’s landscape? A ten-minute stroll into The Haymarket, this high-Victorian mansion is set in two gorgeous houses across the street from each other and the design is true boutique. We are truly and wholly in love with the bold, dramatic colours and prints, oriental rugs and historic art and photographs that echo the owners’ family connections with both Edinburgh and Orkney. We are also hopelessly smitten with the roll-top copper bath with sweeping views at the window in the Dunstane suite. We don’t believe you will make it out of the luxury of your room but if you do, all-day Scottish dining and some of the finest spirits you’ll find in the city await you in the Ba’ Bar. Haggis bonbons, anyone?"

"The Dunstane has undergone a top-to-toe refurbishment and the result is decidedly classy boutique establishment that is a rather a dark horse in the Edinburgh hotel scene. This high-Victorian mansion is all about dramatic design, velvet teals and burnt orange over-stuffed sofas and Habitat-feel soft furnishings. They’ll pick you up from the airport in a vintage Daimler if you ask, too. It’s hard dragging yourself out of the Ba’ Bar with its Chesterfield sofas and glorious bay window views but once you do, it’s a quick ten minute drive into the heart of the city."

"One of the newest hotels in Edinburgh also has one of its most interesting bars. Dunstane Houses in Haymarket is a colourful, warm, design hotel run by Shirley and Derek Mowat from Orkney. They spent a million pounds converting this nineteenth-century West End townhouse into a 16-bedroom hotel with lots of Persian rugs, low atmospheric lighting, velvet sofas and original art from Edinburgh’s Red Door Gallery.

The hotel’s Ba’ Bar takes its name from a kind of football game played on Orkney. It’s an intriguingly dark room with a glowing glass whisky cabinet and bar seats for those who want to watch their drinks being prepared. Here lounge manager, Dan Welsh presides over numerous craft beers, 15 artisanal gins (all local except England’s wonderful Sipsmith) and 60 rare and vintage whiskies. If you want more than just a single malt with the slightest dash of water, order a Whisky Spice which mixes chilli sauce, ginger ale and lime with the single malt of your choice."