The Gleneagles Hotel

The 1924 "Riviera in the Highlands" on an 850-acre Perthshire estate, with James Braid's King's and Queen's courses, Jack Nicklaus's Ryder Cup course, and the two-Michelin-star Andrew Fairlie.

Gleneagles was a golf course before it was a hotel. James Braid’s King’s Course opened on 1 May 1919, and the hotel followed on 7 June 1924, built in Perthshire by the Caledonian Railway Company and billed as a “Riviera in the Highlands”. The railway still shows. The hotel has its own station, less than two minutes away, with free transfers. The estate covers 850 acres, and Edinburgh and Glasgow airports are about an hour’s drive.

Three championship courses share that estate. Braid’s King’s Course is heathland, and his Queen’s Course plays to a par 68. Jack Nicklaus designed the PGA Centenary Course, nearly 7,000 yards from the white tees, where Europe won the 2014 Ryder Cup and then the 2019 Solheim Cup. The hotel says it is the only European golf resort to have hosted both. The Wee Course has nine par-3 holes. Hotel guests and visitors book the same tee times, and nobody asks for a handicap certificate. The PGA National Academy for Scotland is on site.

Breakfast is in every room rate. The Estate Rooms in the main house average 40 m², and the suites include the Tower Suite and the Royal Lochnagar Suite. Restaurant Andrew Fairlie won its first Michelin star in 2002 and its second in 2006. The Strathearn keeps to classical fine dining, and The American Bar is a 1920s cocktail room.

The spa has two indoor pools and an outdoor thermal pool. Off the courses, the estate runs shooting, fishing, falconry, gundog training, riding and off-road driving. Dogs up to the size of a Labrador can stay too, for a nightly fee.