Prestonfield House

Prestonfield House is Edinburgh's great romantic eccentric: a white-harled 1680s mansion set in twenty acres of parkland beneath the volcanic slopes of Arthur's Seat, yet barely ten minutes by taxi from the Royal Mile. Built for Sir James Dick, a Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the house has entertained notable guests across three centuries, and its current owner—restaurateur-hotelier James Thomson of The Witchery—has doubled down on the drama rather than diluting it.

Interiors are a maximalist masterclass: tapestries, gilt, tasselled velvet, leather-lined walls and open fires in a sequence of salons that feel dressed for a Jacobite banquet. The 23 rooms and suites continue the theme with four-posters, rich brocades and views over parkland where peacocks and Highland cattle wander. Nothing here is beige, and that is entirely the point.

Rhubarb, the house restaurant, is named for the plant's introduction to Scotland on this estate and serves polished Scottish cooking in a pair of sumptuous oval dining rooms, with whisky and candlelight to follow in the salons. Prestonfield trades spa facilities and minimalist calm for atmosphere by the ladleful; guests who want a sleek urban base should look elsewhere, but for a romantic Edinburgh occasion it has no real rival.