High on North Bridge, where Edinburgh's Old Town tips into the cosmopolitan New, stands The Scotsman. For the best part of a century, the presses of The Scotsman newspaper thundered away in the basement and editors filled the middle floors, but today you're more likely to hear the clinking of champagne glasses than the clacking of keys. Reborn as a hotel in 2001, it's kept the bones of the original building – oak panelling, ornate ceilings, lots of green and white marble and a 190-foot tower – while incorporating 82 rooms, a clutch of bars and a, fascinatingly, a pocket-sized cinema. The location is also dreamy, with the Royal Mile a minute's walk away and the New Town, five.
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A sweeping Italian marble staircase climbs through the heart of the building, lit by candles once the sun drops. The Grand Café fills the newspaper's former advertising hall, its 1905 plasterwork intact and an excellent setting for the all-day brasserie menu and a much-loved afternoon tea. For something more intimate, slip into The Hide, a low-lit whisky den, or pull up at The Press for a nightcap. Best of all is the Scotsman Picturehouse, an Art Deco cinema with 48 leather armchairs and beautiful empire lamps.
Because the 82 rooms were once newsrooms and offices, no two share the same footprint. Most, however, have blond wood panelling, elegant cream and feather-grey tones, and bathrooms that gleam in white. The corner rooms have windows that curve out over the city below and at the top, the duplex Penthouse (the former pigeon lofts!) climbs a spiral stair to a private balcony with full-frontal Castle views, a roll-top bath and its own sauna. For all rooms, there's a wee dram on arrival and room service is delivered through a discreet privacy hatch into your room, a lovely hangover from the newspaper era.
Leave the car (there isn't anywhere to park it anyway) and explore on foot. The Royal Mile and its cobbles, fudge kitchens and kilt maker's starts a minute uphill, the Castle just beyond it, and Calton Hill's volcanic viewpoint a brisk stroll the other way. Waverley Station is also a mere stroll downhill, so Glasgow or the coast make easy day trips by train. Come evening, prowl the Old Town's spooky closes on a ghost walk (the building has its own resident phantoms), then head back for a film in your very own Picturehouse.
Waking in a corner turret room, the curtains thrown back on a window that frames Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town rooftops tumbling away below.
Take the Scotsman Steps, a 104-step shortcut down to Market Street. Turner Prize winner Martin Creed clad each one in a different marble and it's a free artwork most people glide straight over.
Because every room is a converted office, they vary wildly – some are grand and turreted, others small and inward-facing. It's worth asking for a higher floor with a view when you book, rather than taking pot luck.
Scotland’s alluring capital city of ancient architecture, charm, culture and cuisine in spades.
