The Queen Victoria Suite at The Fife Arms
A little about my stay in The Queen Victoria Suite at The Fife Arms, Braemar
I might have mentioned before about my love for The Fife Arms, an eccentric and luxurious hotel in the sleepy highland town of Braemar. If my multitude of previous articles have not quite got the message across, this hotel is truly something special - and even more so now that it is the place where I was married. Last October my husband and I were incredibly lucky to have our wedding in Braemar, staying in the Queen Victoria Suite at The Fife Arms.
This room, much like the rest of the hotel, is drenched in unique character, art, curiosities, and dramatic design. The theme centres around Queen Victoria, her love and connection to the surrounding highland countryside as well as an ‘idealized and romantic version of regal Victoriana’. The space, decorated by interior designer Russell Sage, is filled with rich textures, vibrant hues, treasured mementos as well as a feeling of warmth and whimsy.
The suite has emerald green walls adorned with golden stencil patterns of fleur- de- lys symbols. There are Indian and Persian style rugs, curtains with the floral ‘Mansfield’ fabric which hosts a noble pattern of hollyhocks, roses and tulips, as well as a roll top bath and grand half-tester bed. Accessories and trinkets involve Chinese ceramics, crystal glass bottles and pottery figurines.
As with the rest of the hotel, artwork plays a crucial role in the design and décor of this suite, with paintings and photo frames including portraits of the royal family taking centre stage. Queen Victoria had a passion for art and pursued landscape drawing and watercolours. There is even a sketched stag by the Queen, named ‘A Stag Shot by John Brown’ from 1874 that hangs in the hotel reception. Within the bedroom suite you also have a framed pair of Queen Victoria’s stockings to really make you feel like you have stepped back in time into an emporium of collectable art and royal treasures.
Queen Victoria first moved to the Cairngorms in 1852 after purchasing Balmoral with her husband Prince Albert. The Fife Arms pays tribute to their influence and love of the surrounding rugged highlands, as the Queen herself stated “Every year my heart becomes more fixed on this dear paradise”.