Three Scottish hotel and museum openings you need to know about
27th September 2018
We love to plan trips around amazing new openings and over the coming months we are spoilt for choice.
Look no further for the best hotel and museum happenings you must visit, including Scotland’s first design museum, the luxurious Fife Arms and a 5 star floating hotel by the Royal Yacht Britannia.
V&A Dundee
Dundee is not only Scotland’s sunniest city, but a city that’s fast becoming a modern wonder. It’s a UNESCO City of Design and now home to the newly opened V&A Dundee, the world’s only V&A museum outside of London.
Opened in September 2018, the £80m V&A Dundee is a celebration of Scottish and global design showcased in an incredible work of architecture. There has not been this much buzz and anticipation about a new museum opening since the Guggenheim opened in Bilbao.
Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (behind the stadium for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics), who explained that inspiration came from the dramatic cliff formations of Scotland’s north-east coast. As well as seeing this eye-catching new museum and visiting Dundee during its renaissance, you have historic castles, Michelin starred restaurants and the world’s best golf courses all within a 45 minute drive.
Fife Arms
The opening of the Fife Arms is the latest project from the art-world power couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth. It was once a 19th-century hunting lodge for the Duke of Fife, but in its latest guise is opening as a 46 room boutique hotel designed by Russell Sage (The Zetter Townhouse, The Goring). Interiors will be peppered with world-class art, ranging from new commissions to museum displays and a collection of paintings, drawings and objects telling the story of the hotel. On the ground floor there will be a restaurant celebrating Scottish produce, as well as a cocktail bar and a spa.
There is huge excitement about this opening locally as Braemar hasn’t seen this much investment since Prince Albert bought Balmoral Castle for Queen Victoria. As well as being located close to Balmoral Castle, the Fife Arms is also set in the stunning Cairngorms National Park and within a 20 minute drive of the Royal Lochnagar distillery.
Fingal
Did you know that you can have afternoon tea on the Royal Yacht Britannia and that it is berthed in Edinburgh’s port of Leith? It is the same Royal Yacht Britannia that features in the Netflix series The Crown. If you would like to experience more of the glamour then they are launching a luxury 5 star floating hotel called Fingal which is a ship from 1963 that has been totally refurbished. Each of its luxury cabins is individually designed and 8 of them will have private balconies, with the Presidential suite having a deck big enough to host a cocktail party for 80 people.
If you ever decide to disembark the Fingal then there are so many great things to see and do around Edinburgh which is one of the most beautiful and historically rich cities in the world.