Wild for the Scottish Highlands: The Fife Arms

Just a two-hour drive north from Edinburgh, The Fife Arms presents the perfect entrée into the Highlands, especially for the traveler (like myself) that enjoys a trimming of indulgence to accent immersion in nature. Built in 1856 as a coaching inn—where the legendary Queen Victoria would stop to change horses on her way to Balmoral Castle, nine miles down the road—the hotel gradually fell into disrepair with the passage of time. In 2014, art and hospitality power-couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth (of Hauser & Wirth and Artfarm renown) purchased it, hoping to restore and revive the landmark after falling in love with Braemar on their own travels.

The Fife Arms reopened in 2018 with 46 individually decorated rooms and suites—each distinctly themed around an element of Scottish culture, nature or history—and a museum-worthy private collection of more than 16,000 artworks, specially commissioned installations and antiques. Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Lucian Freud hold court over the library and drawing room, while smaller treasures are tucked into foyers and hallways—like a sketch of a stag by Queen Victoria, dating back to 1874, and a lovely pair of watercolors by the reigning King Charles III.

Every inch of this mazelike hotel proffers something special to look at, in an eclectic mélange of periods and styles: an alcove bedecked with swirls of taxidermied ungulates (aptly, if darkly, nicknamed “the wall of death”); abstract, multi-colored murals by Zhang Enli and Guillermo Kuitca; custom-built furnishings dressed in the house’s own tartan and tweed (designed by textile it-girl Araminta Campbell); decadent, enviable arrangements by Chelsea Flower Show medalist Jinny Blom; and even some saucy (read: X-rated) Victorian photographs, kept in the bathroom of the room dubbed “The Rebel.” The hotel hosts daily guided tours for guests to attempt to take all of it in, and a continuous rotation of pieces, including temporary loans, guarantees a novel experience with every stay.

Queen Victoria is central to the Fife Arms’ story, but she was hardly the only lady of historic taste and influence to find herself entranced with Braemar. The hotel also pays homage to the rivalrous Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli—both of whom, I was surprised to learn, shared a deep affinity for the Highlands.

Chanel came first, brought to the country in the 1920s by her love affair with Hugh Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster. Her enjoyment of Scottish hunting attire—and her own prowess in fly-fishing—would later inspire her iconic tweed suit, and she maintained a relationship with Scottish mills throughout her career. In her honor, The Fife Arms has just unveiled a 47th accommodation—the Secret Room, so-named for Chanel’s distaste for doors—that transports guests to her sumptuous and oh-so-feminine Paris apartment at 31 Rue Cambon, while also celebrating her inextricable ties to Scottish design. (One note I can share from my sneak peek at the suite: lovers of glamorous bathtubs will not be disappointed.)

Schiaparelli arrived in Scotland later, in the 1930s, lured by her dear friend and editor Frances Farquharson, who had married the laird of Invercauld Estate and resided at nearby Braemar Castle. Frances famously painted one of the castle bathrooms in Schiaparelli’s signature “shocking pink” to commemorate her visits, and today at The Fife Arms, that shade can be enjoyed visually or in liquid form under a massive disco ball in the punchy Elsa’s cocktail bar.

When it comes to drinking at The Fife Arms, though, we must of course return to the Queen herself. The property’s crown jewel is undoubtedly Bertie’s, a whisky bar named for Victoria’s hedonistic eldest son, which contains some 500 bottles from all over the world—and innumerable yarns and legends. The resident whisky librarians are eager to share a taste of it all with their guests, and in the den-like atmosphere of deep leather chairs, glowing amber bottles and crackling fires, it’s impossible not to become intoxicated by the tradition, whether you imbibe or not. “You are enveloped by art in this hotel,” declared Bertie’s director, Tom Addy. “In this room, we have no Picasso, but we do have the oldest whisky in the world. It’s liquid art.”

This particular work dates back to 1833, and not only does it hold the title of “oldest whisky in the world,” but it is also the oldest consumable spirit known to exist in the world. This cask was first bottled in 1841 for Blair Castle—a two-hour drive south of Braemar—and was rebottled, then hidden, in 1932 in anticipation of the Nazi invasion. These 40 bottles remained there, undisturbed and forgotten, until 2022, at which point a portion of the deemed-potable half made its way to The Fife Arms collection. “More people have walked on the moon than have drunk that whisky,” concluded Addy. Queen Victoria is believed to be one of them. (Among my other tasting notes from Addy is mention of enjoying a “wee scoosh,” though I’m still puzzling that one out.)

What grounds The Fife Arms and breathes soul into its many flights of fancy is its location in the Cairngorms. The largest national park in the United Kingdom, the Cairngorms are home to one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, which gave birth to the American Great Smokies and reaches higher than the Himalayas, though its peaks have been rounded by centuries of wind and glacial movement. Its ancient forest of Caledonian pines once covered 70 percent of Scotland; the oldest are affectionately known today as “Granny Pines.” There are even skiable sections, along the Cairnwell Pass. Behind The Fife Arms’ artistic imagination is a very real responsibility: stewardship of the land at a generational crossroads.

This stewardship manifests institutionally, through contributions to the local river trust and reforestation to protect the extremely rare freshwater pearl mussels that inhabit the River Dee. It also manifests in the hotel’s relationships, such as with in-house foraging guide, author and medical herbalist Natasha Lloyd, who captivated us with insights into the mind-boggling workings of the mycelium network and the powers of plant-based healing. (On the rising global interest in these subjects, she commented, “10 years ago, I was the weirdo in the woods. Now, I’ve never been busier.”)

The Fife Arms also partners with local wild swimming guide Annie Armstrong. This ancient wellness tradition—in essence, a cold plunge in a natural body of water, usually a loch or a stream, and often paired with sauna—regained popularity in Scotland during the pandemic, as an aid for community-building (and, it turns out, the trials of menopause, as well).

“Go slowly, stay calm and breathe,” coached Annie, on the morning I was to test out this practice for myself in a nearby eddy. “Don’t hesitate, but don’t rush,” she coaxed, when I flinched as the beyond-ice-cold rivulets of mountain runoff submerged the arteries of my winter-white thighs. “Your body is going into fight or flight mode. You need to tell yourself you’re okay. The best thing to do is walk forward, steadily and forcefully.” It struck me later, gasping and dripping on a riverbank in the Cairngorms woods, that this was rather good advice for life.

Plus, Coming Soon: The Fife Arms’ gravitational pull has remade the village of Braemar around it, sparking a wave of new small businesses. Braemar Brewing Co. was closed, to my great chagrin, during my visit, but I did get to savor the delectable seafood and atmosphere of Artfarm’s acclaimed restaurant Fish Shop in nearby Ballater. Iwan and Manuela Wirth have a long-range plan for development in Braemar, including the restoration of St. Margaret’s Church as a community culture space, the launch of a high-tech personal training pod (available to both hotel guests and locals) and, in the years to come, the renovation of the neighboring Invercauld Arms as an exciting new sister property of larger scale.