There’s nothing like having the number ‘1’ in an address to let people know a city hotel has a prime location. In the case of The Balmoral, the hotel takes up the number one position on Princes Street, the main street that cuts through the heart of Edinburgh. The central Waverley train station is situated just next door and beneath the hotel. The shops of Princes Street and the St James Quarter are on the doorstep. The National Galleries of Scotland and Princes Street Gardens are minutes away. Just a short walk across North Bridge from the hotel and you’re on the Royal Mile, which leads up to the famous Edinburgh Castle. As a base to explore the Scottish capital, it’s hard to beat.
We arrive by car, parking outside the impressive 10-story, 187-bedroom hotel in the shadow of the 60-metre high clock tower. (The iconic clock runs three minutes fast, and always has, to ensure rail travelers never miss a train journey from the station, with the exception of New Year’s Eve, or Hogmanay, when the clock runs on time for the celebratory countdown to the new year.) Friendly men in green tartan kilts and smart black jackets help us with our bags and guide us into the hotel. The Balmoral offers a valet parking service to take cars to a nearby car park, an extra fee, but a service that takes the hassle out of arriving in the busy city center.
We enter a grand, spacious lobby of creamy marble and gleaming chandeliers, with the Brasserie Prince restaurant to one side, the Palm Court ahead, where afternoon tea is served, and Scotch, an inviting whisky bar with bottles displayed on the outside walls, to the other side of the hall. Check-in is welcoming and quick; we’re soon being shown to the lift that takes us up to the fourth floor suite, then walking down corridors with plush thick blue tartan carpet that muffles any sound, the city traffic feeling far away.
I’d been to this hotel before. More than a decade ago, I came here to interview a young credit card thief and fraudster who’d lived a life of luxury and excess through this criminal activity, a character not unlike Frank Abagnale Jr, who Leonardo DiCaprio played in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can. We used one of the Balmoral’s suites for a photo shoot, a hotel the Scottish con artist had stayed at before the law caught up with him and stopped his life of crime.
I remember the suites being more regal then, with reds and golds, everything plush and opulent. The style has changed. Our high-ceilinged suite has a more sedate, understated feel, decorated in shades of grey: a light grey carpet, walls with a grey swirling floral wallpaper, and chequered grey curtains. At the center is a broad, extremely comfortable bed with a grey throw and plump cushions in blues and greys, a picture hanging over the headboard of men checking out a blue sports car. There’s an elegant grey and blue tartan curved sofa in front of the wall-mounted TV, which is set between two backlit leaves on the walls, with armchairs and a writing desk close to the tall windows. Beneath the TV is a wide wooden cabinet that contains a safe, a fridge, a kettle and a coffee machine.
The well-lit, modern bathroom has a large square mirror set in white and grey tiles, the wide sink, a rainshower and a bathtub all set in a white marble and grey marble. On the walls, there are black and white photos from Dr No, including Sean Connery and Ursula Andress.
By far the best aspect of the suite, though, is the view. Looking out from the south-west-facing window over the market stalls outside Waverley Station, we can see the Scott Memorial (a Victorian Gothic monument in honor of the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott), the buses and trams going up and down Princes Street, the green dome of West Register House, the columns of the Scottish National Gallery and Royal Scottish Academy, and, looming over it all, high on a rocky hilltop, Edinburgh Castle. It’s quite a view. Whether it’s in the evening, when the city lights go on across the city, or in the pinkish morning light as the sun rises, we can look out across the Scottish capital and hundreds of years of history.
There’s a fair amount of history to the landmark hotel itself, too. The original hotel opened on October, 15 1902, under the name The North British Railway Station Hotel. It was built and designed by W. Hamilton Beattie and A.R. Scott to partner the newly constructed Waverly Station, which had opened in 1868. The hotel closed for major refurbishment in 1988 and reopened as The Balmoral in March 1991. Nearly a century after it was built, Sir Rocco Forte bought the hotel in 1997, the first hotel in the Rocco Forte Collection.
We start our first morning with a swim, taking the lift down to a quiet basement pool, columns with gleaming reflective green tiles on either side and loungers across the edges. A steam room and sauna are set off to one corner.
Breakfast is served in Brasserie Prince, with vast windows along one side giving a view of city life and traffic outside. With a gleaming bar in one end, smart blue chairs at tables, green-striped ceilings and walls, and lots of mirrors and shining brass, it has the look of a classic French bistro. Staff are exceptionally helpful and friendly, with tea and coffee arriving quickly. The breakfast buffet offers a fine selection to start the day, with three types of yoghurt, cereals, croissants and other pastries, and an abundance of fresh fruit and berries. There are plates of cold meats and cheeses, and two types of smoked Scottish salmon. Silver lids lift on pots to reveal all the ingredients of a cooked Scottish breakfast, including scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding and haggis. But there’s also an a la carte menu with cooked dishes, from omelettes to Eggs Royale.
Well-fueled, we set out to explore Edinburgh, taking an early morning stroll around the Princes Street Gardens and checking out centuries of paintings in the Scottish National Gallery, before making out way uphill to the Writers Museum and wandering cobbled streets and pathways across the historic city center.
In the early afternoon, we make our way up to the top of the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle (https://www.edinburghcastle.scot/, advance tickets £19.50) on what’s known as Castle Rock. People have occupied this high point since at least the Iron Age. There has been a Royal castle up here since the 12th century, with the castle changing hands multiple times throughout the Wars of Independence. In 1314, the Scots, led by Robert the Bruce’s nephew Thomas Randolph, retook the castle from the English. It has served as both a royal residence and as a military barracks, its appearance changing over the years. Mons Meg, a medieval cannon given to King James in 1457, still sits on the ramparts, pointing outwards.
It’s a step back in time to wander the site. We explore the many rooms, including the Great Hall, which dates back to the 1500s, and has a grand fireplace, statues and suits of armor, the walls decorated with lines of ancient weapons, from swords to spears. The Crown Jewels, also known as the Honours of Scotland, are also on display at the castle. But, as with The Balmoral, perhaps the best thing about the castle is the view, with vantage points that look out over the sprawling city, a chance to pick out many other historic and contemporary sites.
In the evening, I make a visit to Scotch, The Balmoral’s whisky bar, a warm, fragrant, dimly lit lounge that you could settle into for hours. Along one wall, there are cabinets filled with bottle after bottle of Scottish whisky – the hotel stocks more than 450 different types of whisky from across the country, including a rare Gordon & Macphail single cask Glenlivet that’s around 50 years old and a £22,000 bottle of Macallan 40 from their Red collection.
“I’m very proud of this little country we have,” the hotel’s bearded and kilted ‘whisky ambassador’ Cameron Ewen tells me, as he recommends a dram of James Eadie’s 13-year-old Strathmill single malt from Speyside in the north-east of Scotland. “Whisky is absolutely vital. We’ve got a really strong cultural identity in Scotland for a country of only 5.5million people: whisky, tartan, haggis, bagpipes... Whisky directly employs about 10,000 people and indirectly contributes to about 60,0000 people’s employment in Scotland. We raise about 6.6 billion pounds of income tax from whisky. There’s huge national pride, and regional pride. Speysiders will all say their whisky is the best. In Islay, they’ll say “You can’t drink that Speyside nonsense - you need to drink the peaty stuff.” There’s a lot of healthy competition.
Once my glass is empty, I make my way to dinner. The hotel has two restaurants, including Number One, a four AA rosette fine dining restaurant down on the lower floor, overseen by Chef Mathew Sherry, which draws on classic Scottish ingredients, such as scallops and salmon. Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t allow children, and as we’re traveling with our young son, that rules it out. We eat instead back at the Brasserie Prince, which doesn’t feel like a conciliation prize at all. Our waiter is incredibly helpful, talking us through the menu, a mix of Scottish and French cuisine, with starters ranging from traditional French onion soup to haggis, neeps and tatties with whisky cream sauce. He also helps us pick out a bottle of bold Argentinian Malbec, which adds a celebratory feel to the evening.
I begin with the fresh, light Eyemouth crab with crème fraiche and grapefruit served on a crumpet, while my wife enjoys the Tartine de Pain with vanilla poached figs, cured Bayonne ham and Brie de Meaux. For mains, I go for the Scottish salmon served with baby leeks, truffle and Hollandaise sauce, my wife choosing the roast lamb loin with girolle mushrooms and a rich mashed potato, the food refined but still hearty. Not one to often go for desserts, I’m tempted by the chocolate mousse, sharing it with my wife who orders hazelnut ice cream profiteroles with hazelnut praline and caramel, enough sticky sweetness to finish us off.
In the morning, we put our white robes back on and head down to the pool before another excellent breakfast at Brasserie Prince that sets us up for our onward journey. As we pack our bags, we make time to look out from our suite’s bedroom window one last time – centuries of history and a view that won’t be quickly forgotten.
The Balmoral, 1 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2EQ. Executive Rooms cost from £295 in the low season and from £425 in the high season. See https://www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/the-balmoral-hotel/. For international bookings, phone +441315562414 or email reservations.balmoral@roccofortehotels.com.
