The Fife Arms

Built originally as a coaching inn on the road through Braemar, the hotel has been reworked into a Highlands base that keeps its old bones and adds a great deal of new art. The village sits on the edge of Cairngorms National Park, with castle routes and whisky trails within driving distance. Rooms mix antique furniture with pieces commissioned for the hotel; each is furnished differently, and beds come dressed in heavy linen against the Highland cold. It is not a large hotel, but it does not feel modest either. Two restaurants anchor the ground floor: the Clunie Dining Room, serving seasonal Scottish dishes under a high ceiling, and the Flying Stag, a pub room built around an open fire. Public spaces double as galleries, with taxidermy, tartan and contemporary commissions sitting in the same rooms without much apology. You can walk out from reception straight onto the road that runs through the village toward the hills. Private rooms are available for events, and family activities are arranged through the hotel. Wi-Fi and ensuite bathrooms are standard throughout. The overall effect is of a building that has kept its coaching-inn shape while filling it with things that would not have been there a century ago.