How hotels have given Scottish tartan a new lease of life
Above legendary live music joint Hootananny in Inverness, the top two floors have been transformed into Hoots Hotel, a handful of eye-catching boutique rooms. Designer, Isobel Barnes has created an eclectic hideaway that includes fabulous fabrics by Fermoie and throws from nearby Campbell’s of Beauly (tweed supplier to King Charles III). The hand-painted tartan bathroom tiles in Room 7, a dreamy eyrie in the eaves, are by Scottish textile and stoneware brand Anta.
Tartan has fallen in and out of favour over the years, its image problem not helped by a slew of old-fashioned Scottish country house hotels. But what Vivienne Westwood once did for the checked cloth in the fashion industry, textile designers Annie Stewart and Araminta Campbell are now attempting in hospitality.
Founded by artist Annie and architect Lachlan Stewart, who met at Edinburgh College of Art, Anta is the torchbearer for contemporary tartan in the Highlands and, this year, is celebrating its 40th anniversary – a milestone marked by Browns Gallery, just round the corner from Hoots Hotel, with a retrospective exhibition running until Jan 25.
From the beginning Anta challenged the tartan norm: black and harsh, primary colours were out, pink and lime green in – to the horror of one of her weavers, Annie told me laughing at the exhibition launch. Anta’s designs are inspired by Scotland’s landscape and seasons, occasionally a reimagining of an old clan tartan, and named after family, friends and favourite places. In 1989, Annie’s hand-painted ceramics appeared on the cover of Elle Decoration – unbeknown to her, a game-changer; tartan had never been used on stoneware before.
But the hotel that really put tartan firmly back on the design map is 19th-century coaching inn turned paean to maximalism, The Fife Arms in Braemar, on the other side of the Cairngorms. Back in 2018, gallerist owners Hauser & Wirth commissioned Russell Sage Studio to wave a wand over the interiors and Araminta Campbell to create a bespoke tweed and tartan for the hotel, their collaboration daubing the spaces in a theatrical, vaguely whimsical look.
The drawing room’s walls are clad in said tartan, its deep green hues inspired by the native Scots Pines, the three shades reflecting the changing seasons. “Not everyone notices the bright green at first; the lime green shoots of spring,” says Campbell. “The river looks red when it’s in spate and the sun is on it.” The yellow is for the gorse flowers, the pinky grey the local granite and the building’s pinkish hue.
“In the past,” she explains, “walls were traditionally covered in fabric.” Wool aids insulation, but the practice was stopped partly because fabric holds onto smoke. Now, with smoking no longer allowed inside, it’s making a comeback. “The effect on acoustics is amazing.”
The tartan’s colours are reflected in the almost psychedelic painted ceiling, a work by Chinese artist Zhang Enli whose swirling shapes were inspired by the layers of stratified Cairngorm rock.
Tartan and tweed are woven throughout the fabric of the hotel, from staff uniforms to the soft furnishings and, naturally, the shop where you can buy Fife Arms tartan hot water bottle covers and cashmere throws. For those inspired by the concept the hotel even offers a “design your own tartan” experience, travelling to Campbell’s workshop outside Edinburgh.
And it’s not the only one. With tartan’s surge in popularity, other hotels are following suit. The Torridon, a stately pile on the west coast, also offers a design your own tartan experience with Hamish Martin of Highland Outfitters – who has recently custom-made a Torridon Tartan for the hotel.
Tartan may once have been seen as twee, but designers are now embracing it in its more modern incarnation, with its unique storytelling capacity and ability to, literally, weave together the past and the present. More and more hotels are now commissioning their own tartans, including The Balmoral, along with Belmond’s Royal Scotsman luxury train.
For Edinburgh’s recently opened 100 Princes Street, once the headquarters of the Royal Overseas League, Campbell created no fewer than five, collaborating with the hotel’s owners to weave in the Tollman family’s milestones and memories to the designs.
The interiors of this luxury boutique hotel, once an enclave of Scottish explorers, celebrate the building’s history. A hand-painted mural winding up the staircase follows the journeys of intrepid Scottish botanists. The Archibald suite, named after naval officer and botanist Archibald Menzies, features a gold palm tree standard lamp – and walls clad in the hotel’s signature tartan.
Another recent project was the Witchery, James Thomson’s sumptuous restaurant with rooms in a higgledy-piggledy cluster of 16th-century buildings beneath the castle, which wanted a tartan and tweed to celebrate five decades of decadence – and the launch of its shop. The Royal Mile, famous for its tartan tourist tat, finally boasts a bastion of fine craftsmanship.
Campbell drew inspiration from the Munro tartan in honour of Thomson’s grandmother while playing on the Witchery’s gothic grandeur. Wine-red threads are a reference to the burgundy-hued wood panelling taken from a chateau in France, the black a nod to Edinburgh’s darker history when the fear of witchcraft gripped the city. The green checks, however, look to the future, symbolising Thomson’s preservation of the property’s architectural heritage. Like all contemporary tartans, it’s a multi-faceted story in fabric form with an exciting new chapter ahead of it.
Lucy Gillmore travelled as guest of The Fife Arms (01339 720200; thefifearms.com), which offers doubles from £515, and 100 Princes Street (0131 287 3100; 100princes-street.com), which offers doubles from £450.
