DISCOVER THREE STUNNING DISTILLERY HOTELS IN SCOTLAND

Adrian Mourby

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Murraypark Hotel, Crieff

At the northern end of the town of Crieff stands the Murraypark, a turreted sandstone building of Victorian design. Crieff is a wealthy Perthshire town laid out in the 1730s after the first Jacobite rebels had torched it. Later it benefitted from the development of Scottish mass tourism in the nineteenth century. The Crieff Hydropathic Centre opened in 1868 as a temperance hotel for exercise, water cures and mountain air.  The experiment was so successful that it was imitated across Scotland where there were at one time as many as 20 “hydros” in the early twentieth century.
Around the corner from the Crieff Hydro stands this hotel, the more modest Murraypark. This building was the home of an affluent local family for the first few decades of its existence. Then, as so often happened in the early twentieth century, the big Victorian families moved out and the Murraypark became a hotel, enlarged over the years in all directions in an ad hoc kind of way.
Up until the 1980s the Murraypark wasn’t exactly in competition with the Crieff Hydro but it did provide a busy bar. When there were dances and other events at the big temperance hotel next door, guests would pile into the Murraypark at the interval for a drink (that particular raison d’etre ceased in the 1980s when the Crieff Hydro opened its own bar).

The 1980s has provided the Park with another claim to fame; local boy Ewan McGregor worked in its kitchens as a teenager. The future Obi Wan was not the only Star Wars luminary to come from Crieff. McGregor’s uncle Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles) was born and brought up here.
In 1999 the Crieff Hydro family of hotels bought the Murraypark from hoteliers Norman and Anne Scott and it was added into Crieff’s portfolio of northerly Scottish hotels. A stained-glass window in the bar commemorates the Scotts by their initials, NAS and AMS.
There are 21 rooms in the hotel and each one greets its guests with two small bottles of “1881” gin (distilled at the Hydro hotel in Peebles) plus tonic, ice and desiccated grapefruit for garnish.  Many of the facilities of the nearby Crieff Hydro are available free of charge, including a swimming pool and gym. There's also a cinema, segway rides, quad biking and pony trekking. But at the Murraypark it's worth staying in, especially on a warm summer's evening when you can sit out in the garden, send your children to play on the swings and visit the 1881 Gin Shed for ample replenishments. 

WHAT TO DO:
Less than two miles north of The Murraypark stands Glenturret, the oldest distillery in Scotland. Historical evidence confirms it was definitely in operation in 1763, tucked away in a valley where the Hanoverian taxman couldn’t surprise any illicit distilling. Today Glenturret produces a small range of remarkable hand-crafted single malts that are bottled in specially designed Lalique bottles. The Lalique Group purchased this distillery in 2019. They have insisted on the continuance of natural processes that are good for the environment in their production of single malt whisky and with the intention of eschewing peat-drying entirely from 2026 because of the amount of CO2 it releases into the atmosphere.  
 
There is a Lalique Restaurant above the distillery whose décor is exquisite and whose cuisine has recently had its second Michelin star reconfirmed. There is also a Lalique shop and a distillery shop where staff can advise on purchasing whisky and wine for investment
Visitors should look out for the statue erected to Towser, a long-haired tortoiseshell cat who lived 24 years at the distillery and in that time killed at least 28,000 mice. Towser is in the Guiness Book of Records as the feline who killed the most mice in the world for her employer. Today her role is taken by two less fierce moggies, Glen and Turret who have their own cat flap into the distillery. 
£20 pp (Book a tour)
 
 

Coul House Hotel, Strathpeffer

A brass plaque by the front door of this early nineteenth-century hotel announces that Susannah and Stuart Macpherson are not just the proprietors of Coul House, but its “proud owners”.  This beautifully-refurbished building is set in eight acres of mature woodlands with splendid views of the Strathconon Mountains from many of its rooms. It has 21 bedrooms, a few gracious public rooms and an excellent reputation for its food. It also has a rare octagonal dining room, similar to that found at Windsor Castle. In 1881 Queen Victoria attended a highland gathering immediately in front of  Coul House but there is no evidence she actually came inside and recognised the parallels.

Today there is a warm welcome from Stuart himself who sits at reception in his tweed waistcoat. He is a very hands-on owner, carrying guests' luggage to their  rooms and serving drinks in the bar. Stuart managed luxury hotels in the United States before returning to Scotland to run his own. He has a small dedicated staff, many of whom have been with the hotel for decades.

The first owner of Coul House (built in 1821) was Sir George Steuart Mackenzie, 7th Baronet of Coul. The Mackenzie family had lived in the parish of Coul since 1640s and he was known as a just and liberal landlord, distinguished in the pursuit of science.

The grounds are blessed with some enormous trees, including a Douglas fir planted in 1827 from seeds brought back from the Americas by David Douglas himself. Douglas was a Scottish botanist who first described the species. There is also a giant redwood and rhododendron bushes that were recently grew so abundant that they had almost obliterated the lawn. Today they have been cut back to frame the large lawn, and one rhode-jungle has been turned into a Fairy Trail for young visitors. (It's actually quite fun for grown-ups too.)

There are 21 rooms, decorated with pelmets, chandeliers and Victorian dressing tables. Only Room 14 – the bridal suite – is less traditional, with a large black four poster bed, a dark leather Chesterfield and navy-blue drapes.
Dinner at Coul House is exceptionally good, showcasing the work of three chefs who have worked together for over 20 years - which says a lot about the success of the hotel under the MacPhersons. Head Chef Garry Kenley joined four days after the MacPhersons took over. The day we stayed lunch was set for a party that was helicoptering in just to dine. 
Breakfast offers a tongue-in-cheek range of Scottish-themed dishes - The Laird's Breakfast, The Ghillie's Breakfast, The Poacher's Breakfast and the Vegetarian Poacher's Breakfast.

Stuart does not intend to pass on the hotel to his children. When the time comes, he will sell up and retire. This has been a very personal project and labour of love - and a very successful one too.

WHAT TO SEE NEARBY:
There are some attractive burns and waterfalls near Coul House but one of the best places to visit is Glen Ord where they make The Singleton. This whisky term comes from the single barrel that the distiller kept back for himself and therefore a whisky of true excellence. There are only three distilleries producing Singletons in Scotland. Dufftown produces a Singleton for the European market, Glendullan for the American market and Glen Ord exclusively for the Asian market. The only place you can buy the Glen Ord Singleton is in the shop here in the Muir of Ord (or other Singelton distilleries). Of the three Singeltons this is the fruitiest, reminding some of Christmas cake.

The distillery runs tours that can be booked online. These end with a tasting comparing the three different kinds of Singletons. £22 pp
Visit The Singleton

 

The Park, Peebles

Peebles is a small town south of Edinburgh that now lies in the capital’s commuter belt. The A72 runs through it and provides its High Street. At the eastern end sits The Park Hotel, converted out of a large family home - long known as Minden House - in the days when wealthy men could support more children than they wanted but couldn’t stop them coming.
One of the first owners was a Mr Ballantyne who made his money from the famous tweed mills of Peebles. The hotel bar is named Ballantyne’s in his honour. A subsequent owner was Mr Sinclair, a local butcher. Beef is always on the menu in his name. (There are also bits of butcher’s impedimenta decorating the place - though not as gruesome as that sounds.) The final owner was a Mr Park who turned over this house to the Crieff Hydro family of hotels. Crieff named it after him, which is why I searched in vain for a nearby park. 
 
As you drive into the car park a sign announces that this hotel offers BAR - BAKERY - BEEF. 
From the outside it is possible to discern the shape of the original nineteenth century Minden House owned by Mr Ballantyne. It must have been the finest home in Peebles but its twentieth-century development has obscured its previous lines. Guests enter through automatic doors to confront a large red (non-working) phone box as designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Next to it stands the hotel bakery, which produces cakes and biscuits for those coming in with their laptops for the day. There is a bit of a sense of community hub here. 
The ground floor décor is funky by the standards of rural Scotland with decoration that includes doors (that do not open) and ladders (that lead nowhere) and chairs stapled upside down on the walls.
Bedrooms on the first and second floors are more restrained but they remain cozy and colourful – yellow lamps, green panelling, floor to ceiling - in blue or grey tiles - in the bathrooms. 
The hotel is paired with the Hydro Hotel at Peebles, a ten-minute walk down the A72, here is a regular Scots Xanadu where you can swim, trek with alpacas, shoot air rifles, throw axes, and try your hand at archery.  There is also the opportunity to visit the 1881 distillery, where the gin served by Crieff Hydro hotels is made, and even distil your own.
There is a real sense of home from home at The Park. Ground floor rooms are scattered with sofas, desks and chairs. This decor is very much UK eclectic, but it is eclectic to a point. Every detail relates to the hotel's history as a family home and the businesses of previous owners. Even the scales for weighing bacon.
Service is cheery and the clientele is predominantly made up of regulars who find Peebles a pleasant place to pass the weekend. Walkers and cyclists also stay here but so do people who like to sit in armchairs and have someone else cook for them.

WHAT TO SEE NEARBY:
The High Street in Peebles is justly proud of having so many individual shops and virtually no chains (barring a Costa and a Boots). This is exciting and reminded me of the shopping streets of my youth.
Meanwhile 25 miles north of Peebles - on your way to Edinburgh - stands Glenkinchie. This sweet red brick Victorian distillery in its own model town for workers is one of just four that produce whisky for the world’s most famous blend, Johnnie Walker. In recent years an innovatory visitor experience has been installed in the old distillery to explain not just how Glenkinchie’s sweet Lowland whisky is made but how it plays its part with Caol Isla from Isla, Cardhu from Speyside and Glynelish from the Highlands to create Johnnie Walker. 
£21 for 90 minute tour and tasting