Scottish Serenade - 1
Whoever thought of putting a railway hotel up here back in 1902 should have taken some shares in The Balmoral. It’s still above Waverley Station, but it's got so much else good going for it. Take location. It's on the main tram line to the airport, for instance. Look across Princes Street, and immediately you have the Apple store next to a Sainsbury's Local with everything from a bottle of wine to toothpaste.
From Princes Street, enter the hotel via three big stone steps flanked by a Chelsea Flower Show of floribunda in pots (well, admittedly sometimes things are a bit overdone, but…). One needs escapism from the dour nature that is so Scottish. Girlahead saw two typical dour-Scots yesterday, mouths like bananas standing on their two ends. She did not have a chance to share a bit of her own happiness.
Andrew McPherson, above, runs this, the traditional hotel that shows you Edinburgh with elegance. This is where locals meet. They come for coffee in Prince's Brasserie, a Martin Brudnizki special, by the way. Locals also come to chit-chat with friends in the Palm Court, a two-floor-high oval space with an occasional harpist at strumming on an upper level balcony. And they come in evening frocks and black tie for big charity events. The Balmoral is the place where everything happens.
The 189-roomer rises through seven floors. This time Girlahead was in #324, the Blair Suite (she arrived just before midnight). This must have once been three very narrow rooms. Now the middle room has become a closet, which leaves a fairly narrow, long living room- see photo - and an equal-sized bedroom from which leads a flecked white marble bathroom with both heated floor and towel rail, and Irene Forte toiletries. Forte family little touches are visible in so many places – the choice of hardbacks, edibles that spoke quality not quantity. She was fascinated by one hardback, Spirit of Place: Whisky Distilleries of Scotland, by Charles Maclean (the publisher, Francis Lincoln, helped Girlahead publish a few years ago).
Of course Edinburgh’s Scotland. The hotel’s Whisky Bar has special tastings, 28 people a year. It’s also got one open bottle of One of One Glencoyne 1979. But it was late, and Girlahead had already dined but she was tempted by three exquisite mini cakes, and fresh fruit, waiting in welcome. One of her four pillows was embroidered with correct initials. The cashmere throw on the bed was tartan, by Araminta Campbell for the hotel. Every colour says something: the three
pale green checks indicate the Waverley clock…
