The Fife Arms

Push through the door and you're in the Flying Stag, the much-loved village pub, where a sculpted winged stag presides over oozing pints of real ale and venison pie. Beyond it, the maximalism continues in all its fabulous-ness: log fires, bursts of Fife Arms tartan, neon antlers, a Burns-carved chimneypiece over three metres tall, and the Drawing Room's hand-painted ceiling by Zhang Enli. Head to Bertie's Whisky Bar for a choice of hundreds, all arranged by flavour, or to Elsa's, a shocking-pink, art-deco snug with cocktails to match. And if all that has worked up an appetite, Clunie cooks proper dinners over a fire.

The rooms are each themed to a Braemar person, event or quirk, from the compact Croft rooms with their hand-painted cabin beds to the four Royal Suites. Nature & Poetry rooms have headboards carved with old Scottish verse, while Victoriana suites come with freestanding copper baths. Your key arrives in a book-box explaining the room's history. Expect tartan, antiques and original art on the walls, plus rain showers and views over the village or hills. Finishing touches include crystal decanters of Fife Arms whisky, notebooks and pencils, and exquisite chocolates from the Braemar Chocolate Shop just down the road.

Start with an art historian's tour of the hotel's collection (fascinating), then enjoy a whisky flight at Bertie's and a spa treatment using the hotel's own heather-and-juniper botanicals (or perhaps the other way around!). Outside, the Cairngorms beckon: bag a Munro, fish for salmon on the Dee, ski Glenshee in winter, visit the local tea rooms for scones, or potter around Balmoral, just nine miles to the east. Then, if you're here for the first Saturday in September, the whole village fills with kilts and cabers for the Braemar Gathering.