Designed in 1687 by Sir William Bruce — the architect responsible for the Palace of Holyroodhouse — the pink harled manor at the foot of Arthur's Seat has functioned as a private house, a diplomatic residence, and now, in its most theatrically realized incarnation, Prestonfield House. James Thomson, who transformed the property into a hotel in the 1990s and has continued layering it ever since, has made accumulation itself the design philosophy: every room is a deliberate act of excess, and the effect is closer to entering a collector's private obsession than checking into a Scottish country house hotel. The interiors reward sustained attention. A drawing room hung with plasterwork cherubs and crowded with striped sofas, carved oak side tables, and red pleated lamp shades sits alongside a panelled sitting room lined in what appears to be deeply lacquered leather or embossed wallcovering, its fireplace flanked by blue-and-white Kangxi-period ginger jars and Persian Heriz rugs underfoot. Bedrooms carry the same unrestrained commitment — one dominated by a dark walnut four-poster swathed in crimson silk damask with gold grotesque figures, another papered in cream-and-burgundy damask with a spiralled white column bed and a gilded wrought-iron console. Across the property's seventeen rooms, nothing coordinates in any conventional sense, yet the whole thing holds together through sheer conviction and the warmth of candlelight bouncing off centuries of accumulated gilt.

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Prestonfield is Edinburgh's most indulgent retreat and Scotland's latest 5-star hotel. Rated one of the "Best 101 Hotels in the World" by Tatler/Abercrombie & Kent and AA Hotel of the Year 2005, this exceptional hotel is near Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Prestonfield has been lavishly restored by new owner James Thomson of Edinburgh's famous Witchery by the Castle. Now guests find every modern convenience hidden behind the velvet-upholstered walls of Edinburgh's most talked-about bedrooms.