The Buildings Behind 25 Edinburgh Hotels
A railway hotel with a clock kept fast, a bank turned restaurant, a lighthouse tender moored at Leith, and a church front with a hotel built behind it.
Edinburgh turned its banks, a railway hotel or two, a church, and even a lighthouse ship into hotels. This list has the station hotel on Princes Street whose clock is kept fast, the old Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters on St Andrew Square, the Northern Lighthouse Board ship moored at Leith, and the restaurant with suites on Castlehill named for the witch trials held nearby.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Most of the hotels link to their own site, where the rate is current and you book direct; a few of the chain houses are listed without a link.
The grand old names
The Balmoral · Princes Street / New Town
The Balmoral opened in 1902 as the North British Station Hotel, built above Waverley Station for the North British Railway. Its clock tower is kept about three minutes fast, so travellers below do not miss their trains. J.K. Rowling finished the last Harry Potter novel in a room here in January 2007, now named the J.K. Rowling Suite.
The Caledonian Edinburgh, Curio Collection by Hilton · West End
The Caledonian opened in 1903 as the Caledonian Railway’s station hotel, attached to the since-demolished Princes Street Station. Built in warm red sandstone, it has long been known to locals as ‘the Caley’. It ran as Scotland’s first Waldorf Astoria from 2012 before moving to Hilton’s Curio Collection.
The Scotsman Hotel · Old Town (North Bridge)
The Scotsman occupies the former headquarters of The Scotsman newspaper, finished on North Bridge in 1905. It was converted into a hotel in 2001, keeping the building’s grand marble staircase.
InterContinental Edinburgh The George · New Town (George Street)
The George has stood on George Street since the 19th century, built around earlier houses of the First New Town with work by the architect David Bryce. It reopened as InterContinental Edinburgh The George in 2018, after trading as The Principal Edinburgh George Street.
Old Waverley Hotel · Princes Street
The Old Waverley dates to around 1848, among the oldest hotels on Princes Street, directly facing the Scott Monument. For much of its history it ran as a temperance hotel.
Old money: banks and a club
Gleneagles Townhouse · New Town (St Andrew Square)
Gleneagles Townhouse is set in the former British Linen Bank on St Andrew Square, designed by David Bryce and completed in 1851. The old banking hall is now the hotel’s main restaurant and all-day room. It opened in 2022 as the Edinburgh sibling of the Gleneagles resort in Perthshire.
The Edinburgh Grand · New Town (St Andrew Square)
The Edinburgh Grand is housed in the former headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland on St Andrew Square. It reopened in July 2025 as Scotland’s first Luxury Collection hotel, after a run as Cheval serviced apartments.
The Inn on the Mile · Old Town (Royal Mile)
The Inn on the Mile is set in a former bank of 1898, at the corner where the Royal Mile meets the city’s bridges. The high-ceilinged old banking hall is now its bar and lobby.
100 Princes Street · Princes Street / New Town
100 Princes Street occupies the former Edinburgh clubhouse of the Royal Over-Seas League. It opened under Red Carnation Hotels in 2022, looking across Princes Street Gardens to the Castle.
Churches, asylums and ships
The Glasshouse · New Town (Greenside, below Calton Hill)
The Glasshouse was built behind the preserved 1846 stone front of the former Lady Glenorchy’s Free Church. It is topped by a two-acre rooftop garden on the slopes of Calton Hill.
Hotel du Vin Edinburgh · Old Town (Bristo Place)
Hotel du Vin is in a 19th-century building on Bristo Place, on a site linked to the city’s former asylum and later used as a hospice. It is the Edinburgh house of the wine-themed Hotel du Vin group, near George IV Bridge.
Malmaison Edinburgh · Leith (The Shore)
Malmaison is set in the former Leith Sailors’ Home, a baronial building of the 1880s on Tower Place at the waterfront. Built to lodge visiting seafarers, it now looks over the harbour at the mouth of the Water of Leith.
Fingal · Leith (Alexandra Dock)
Fingal is a former Northern Lighthouse Board ship, built in 1963, that tended Scottish lighthouses for decades. It is now berthed at Leith and opened as a floating hotel in 2019, by the team behind the Royal Yacht Britannia. Its cabins are named for lighthouses the ship once served.
Old Town landmarks
Virgin Hotels Edinburgh · Old Town (Victoria Street / India Buildings)
Virgin’s first hotel in Europe opened in the Old Town in June 2022. It is in the restored Victorian India Buildings off Victoria Street, derelict for years before the work.
The Witchery by the Castle · Old Town (Castlehill, Royal Mile)
The Witchery is set in 16th- and 17th-century merchants’ buildings on Castlehill, steps from the Castle esplanade. It is named for the people accused of witchcraft and executed nearby on Castlehill in those centuries. James Thomson opened it as a theatrical restaurant with lavish suites in 1979.
Cheval Old Town Chambers · Old Town (off the Royal Mile)
Cheval Old Town Chambers is built into the restored medieval and 17th-century closes off the Royal Mile, around Advocate’s Close. It takes in one of Edinburgh’s oldest surviving townhouses and reopened after a major restoration in 2014.
Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Mile · Old Town (George IV Bridge)
This hotel opened in 2009 as Hotel Missoni, the Italian fashion house’s first hotel. It became the G&V Royal Mile in 2014 and later the Radisson Collection.
Townhouses and a country house
The Bonham · West End (Drumsheugh Gardens)
The Bonham is set in three linked Victorian townhouses of the 1880s on Drumsheugh Gardens, in the West End. The houses served earlier as university student residences before the hotel opened in 1998.
Nira Caledonia · New Town (Gloucester Place)
Nira Caledonia is set in Georgian townhouses on Gloucester Place, an address associated with the critic and editor John Wilson, who wrote as ‘Christopher North’. It reopened after a serious roof fire in 2016, and its restaurant, Blackwood’s, recalls the publisher William Blackwood.
The Raeburn · Stockbridge
The Raeburn is set in a listed Georgian mansion of around 1832 in Stockbridge, named for the portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn. It was long the Raeburn House Hotel before a boutique relaunch.
21212 · New Town (Royal Terrace, Calton Hill)
21212 is a Michelin-starred restaurant with four rooms, in a Georgian townhouse on Royal Terrace designed by William Playfair. The terrace went up in the 1820s as part of Playfair’s scheme wrapping Calton Hill.
Kimpton Charlotte Square · New Town (Charlotte Square)
Kimpton Charlotte Square takes in a run of Georgian townhouses on Charlotte Square, laid out to Robert Adam’s 1791 design for the New Town. Formerly the Roxburghe and then The Principal, it opened as Kimpton’s first Scottish hotel in 2019.
Parliament House Hotel · New Town / Calton (Calton Hill)
Parliament House is set in an early-19th-century Georgian terrace at 15 Calton Hill, just off the top of Leith Walk. The buildings date from the New Town’s spread toward Calton Hill.
The Dunstane Houses · West End (West Coates / Haymarket)
The Dunstane Houses occupy two restored Victorian villas facing each other across West Coates, from the mid-19th century. The Orcadian owners theme the hotel around Orkney, down to the whisky list and the seafood.
Prestonfield House · Priestfield (below Arthur’s Seat)
Prestonfield House was rebuilt in 1687 by the architect Sir William Bruce for the Lord Provost Sir James Dick, after a mob burned the earlier house in 1681. Guests over the centuries have included Benjamin Franklin and the travelling pair Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. It sits in parkland with Highland cattle below Arthur’s Seat, and James Thomson of the Witchery relaunched it as a theatrical hotel in 2003.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a bank, a railway hotel, a church, a ship, or a townhouse with a past. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Edinburgh leave by train from Waverley or Haymarket, or by coach from the city centre. The New Town and Old Town hotels sit closest to Waverley.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small townhouse hotels — Nira Caledonia, The Raeburn, 21212 — hold few rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.