We had two nights booked in Edinburgh’s latest Boutique Hotel sensation the newly refurbished Bruntsfield Grand.
The Bruntsfield Grand Hotel
General Manager, Alistair Bruce ‘guests will feel as though they are being welcomed into ‘our home’ when they arrive at The Bruntsfield’ – very intriguing.
Built in 1861 in the suburb of Bruntsfield the property originally connected three stately homes. After a multimillion-pound refurbishment it is now dedicated to providing true Scottish hospitality for visitors to the city.”
The 72-bedroom hotel is within walking distance of Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile and Princes Street Gardens and overlooks Bruntsfield Links & Meadows. The look and feel of the new guest rooms are bright and colourful with personal touches.
On arrival a wonderful welcome awaited us, the staff were amongst the most helpful and pleasant I have met, making it a priority to be at our service and ensure we were settled in from the minute we went through the door.
Check-in completed General Manager Alistair, took us on a tour of the hotel telling us the history of the place as well as about the surrounding area, the close proximity to many attractions Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, as well as the Holyrood distillery all must visit attractions.,
We had booked a ‘Superior Room
On entering the first thing you notice are the spectacular views, our room overlooked the Bruntsfield Meadow with Edinburgh Castle as a stunning backdrop.
The room itself certainly had the 'wow' factor’, decorated in bright, earthy tones, featuring a king-sized bed, seating area, and desk. Spacious clean with décor that worked well for the modern traveller but even with all the modern conveniences the room maintained the elegant period touches including the beautiful Victorian sash windows all of which encapsuled history of the hotel.
All the essentials are provided from tea/coffee, hairdryer, iron and fast Wi Fi . The generous size en-suite bathroom with a refreshing power shower and toilet, comes complete with eco-friendly guest amenities by BeeKind including a loofah and vanity kit.
The room was well lit and spacious and was perfect for those who want to stay longer than just a night. There was plenty of room to spread out and take up the space if you’re an untidy couple like we are.
The Brunsfield’s new Neighbourhood Kitchen Bar & Garden
We had booked our evening meal in Neighbourhood Kitchen Bar & Garden.
The restaurant serves classic dishes that takes advantage of the finest Scottish produce including, homemade pizzas or speciality Scottish steak burgers, Scottish salmon, or Sirloin steak,
Showered and changed we went to have a relaxing late evening meal.
The menu was excellent with all tastes catered for with a wide choice of options. I had the Watermelon & feta salad Tomato, Edinburgh gin and pomegranate dressing, chia seeds starter followed by the Salmon and extra sides, of rocket, watercress, avocado & fennel salad garlic & herb mash. My partner in crime went for the Haggis Ravioli Crushed neeps, crispy potato, whisky cream sauce starter followed by the sirloin Steak John Gilmour’s 225g sirloin steak, slow roasted tomato, garlic, portobello mushroom, onion rings, thin fries, watercress, peppercorn sauce all cooked to perfection by the hotel chef.
After a suitable break it was time for dessert, I had the white Chocolate Cookie dough with salted caramel sauce. While my partner had apple, ginger and pecan crumble with crème anglaise
To settle all the fabulous food, it was cocktail time how does a Penicillin: Famous Grouse, lemon juice, our homemade honey ginger syrup, Laphroaig 10 year, and a Scottish Garden: Edinburgh Gin, Grey Goose, elderflower cordial, apple juice, sound.
I must add the head waiter and the rest of the staff made the experience fabulous as they really look after us.
Then off to bed ready for an early start to take in as much as we could that Edinburgh had to offer.
Next day we were up early ready for the Brunsfield’s famous full Scottish Breakfast of poached egg, smoked back bacon, pork sausage, haggis, potato scone, Stornoway black pudding, baked beans, grilled tomato and portobello mushroom. Plenty of fruit juice and lashings of coffee before setting off to see the sights of Edinburgh.
After a first-class breakfast in the restaurant, we set off to explore.
With Holyrood Castle, Her Majesty the Queen official residence when she is in Scotland. Holyrood Castle saw us following in the footsteps of royalty including the private rooms of Mary Queen of Scots, James II, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria. The whole visit was narrated by a taped commentary provided to each visitor.
From there a walk up the hill along the picturesque Royal Mile, passing Oliver Cromwell’s residence, the Café where JK Rowling conjured up Harry Potter ending up at Edinburgh Castle, one of the top tourist attractions in Scotland.
We finished the day descending into the underground world of Mary King's Close, an abandoned street buried beneath the modern city, where we got the gory tales of its former residents.
Then it was back to the hotel to rest up before going for an early evening meal and bed.
We stayed at the Bruntsfield for two nights and cannot praise the staff and management enough, welcomed with genuine hospitality it’s a fit our often, used phrase, “They know how to look after you”.
The Bruntsfield is a perfect, its central location makes it ideal for sight-seeing, there are Castles, museums, art galleries, seats of power, and parks. Whilst just outside of the city are Scotland’s famous distilleries, and Edinburgh zoo, all within a fifteen minutes bus ride, there is so much to see.
We found the Bruntsfield Grand Hotel the perfect base to see the treasures of Edinburgh.