Prestonfield - Edinburgh, Scotland

About this Chic Retreat

Prestonfield is a luxury hotel that is "So extravagant it's like walking onto the set of some flamboyant costume drama." Conde Nast Traveller Magazine. James Thomson, owner of the capital's celebrated Witchery and Tower restaurants, acquired this historic 17th-century mansion, which had already been a hotel for fifty years. The purchase of this luxury country house hotel realised a long held ambition. For, while still a student at catering college, Thomson had worked at Prestonfield as a banqueting waiter. He fell in love with the magical place, and dreamt of one day becoming its owner. Distinguished by opulent furnishings, fine paintings and antiques, the decadent and quixotic splendours of Prestonfield provide the ultimate retort to minimalism. It is surely Edinburgh's most indulgent chic retreat. For, although only 5 minutes from the heart of Scotland's historic capital, this ravishing 17th-century mansion is set in 20 acres of verdant parkland.

Originally built by the king's architect, Sir William Bruce in 1687, Prestonfield was home to successive generations of the Dick-Cunynhams one of Scotland's wealthiest and most distinguished dynastic families. Throughout its long and colourful history, this unique and memorable place has always been fabled for its hospitality. Successive Dick-Cunynham baronets of Prestonfield entertained the luminaries of their day. In the eighteenth century, these included the writers and intellectuals of the Scottish Enlightenment.