The Fife Arms

Character and identity

A Victorian coaching inn at the foot of the Cairngorms, a few miles from Balmoral, reborn in 2019 under Swiss gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth and interior designer Russell Sage. Inside, 46 individually themed rooms sit among more than 16,000 artworks, from a Picasso and a Brueghel to watercolours by Queen Victoria and King Charles, plus chandeliers of cutlery and antlers. Eat at the locavore Clunie Dining Room, the Flying Stag pub, or jewel-box Elsa's Bar; drink at Bertie's whisky bar; recover at the small Albamhor spa. The register is flamboyant, warm and refreshingly egalitarian.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What sets this place apart is the combination of museum-grade art, properly creative cooking and unusually warm, unstuffy staff, all in a village that feels like the real Highlands rather than a stage set. Spend the money if you care about design and provenance; book a Nature and Poetry room for the carved Alec Finlay headboards, and time a visit around a Bertie's whisky tasting.