Articles > Mar Hall

In austere stony grandeur Mar Hall commands the 240-acre estate on the River Clyde where Mar castles have stood since the 14th century. Drifting mists from nearby Loch Lomond grace the Kilpatrick Hills, providing lots of Scottish atmosphere in which to ramble, dream and ponder. Could the Glasgow Airport be only 5 minutes away, and Glasgow nightlife only 20? Nonsense! Mar Hall is centuries away from all that clobber.

Erskine House, quarried from local stone, was the colossal dream mansion started in 1820 by the 11th Lord of Blantyre, one of the Earls of Mar. The Earl died in Brussels in 1830, a full decade before the house was completed at a cost of £50,000.

A massive £15 million renovation by the Small Luxury Hotels of the World consortium has transformed the Neo-Gothic masterpiece into a five-star golf and spa country hotel rated by Conde-Naste among the top five hotels in Glasgow. Not even the hotel staff knows how many rooms the house contains. Every time they are counted the number seems to change, lending even more mystery to this imposing baronial demesne.

Architect David Major of Whitehill Designs has revived all the classic opulence, respecting the work of the original architect Sir Robert Smirke, MA, designer of the British Museum in London.

In late February of 2005 when I visited Mar Hall, the Aveda Spa was being completed and the golf course was being landscaped. For a five-star experience, you’d expect a grand entranceway and a posh lobby. But Mar Hall is an historical Listed Building and Scottish law restrains changes to the original foyer, so you enter a stark stone room appointed with a modest welcome desk.

Designer Lesley Wallace of Wallace Interiors, who designed the luxurious Number One Devonshire Glasgow, has graced Mar Hall and its 41 bedrooms and 12 suites with period antiques, tapestries, weighty tasseled drapes, and a fortune in gorgeous decorator cushions.

So many cushions, in fact, that when you enter the Grand Hall--which at 118 feet long is indeed grand--you don’t know where to sit. Louis IX chairs and plush sofas are filled to the edge, and you toss and turn wondering what to do with them. Pile them neatly on the Oriental carpet? Hold them in your lap? Sit on top of them? You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s gauche to sit at all…

And perhaps Mar Hall must be forgiven for seeming a bit more intent on making a fabulous formal impression than being finely attuned to the creature comforts of guests. Although it is an old, old house, it is a brand new hotel, barely a year old, and does not yet have that intangible “lived-in” feeling you get from hotels that have welcomed thousands of guests, and are catered by staff members who have worked closely together for years.

The Grand Hall, formerly known as the Picture Gallery, makes a regal setting for wedding shots. Watching a wedding magazine photographer clicking away at a gorgeous model in a gorgeous gown makes it hard to imagine that sunlight flooding through these towering windows once shown upon limbless sailors and soldiers in wooden wheelchairs. From 1916 on, Erskine House served as the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, and later housed the administrative offices of the Erskine Hospital.

This sad interlude in Mar Hall’s history is not evident today. But it may have influenced my initial perception of my gargantuan Classic Room Number 7 as being vaguely funereal: the high four poster bed which requires a step to mount was canopied and draped in black; the headboard was black and the black sofa bed was filled with black cushions. But black can be sexy of course, and the view of the river and Kilpatrick Hills through the tall sash windows was stunning.

Some honeymooners might feel shy in the hushed, polite atmosphere of Mar Hall and shrink from the palatial dimensions of some rooms whose echoey bathrooms showcase marble fireplaces, high-tech claw-foot tubs and stand-alone power showers, telephones, bidets, his-and-her wash basins and satiny chaise longues. But consider that Mar Hall’s walls are three feet thick. Sounds escape not.

Mar Hall’s top floor rooms brightened by white furnishings are intimate hideaways done up in fresh country pastels. Other alternatives to the grand suites are the rooms surrounding the Aveda Spa, in which you can live for days in your thick terry robe. Great if you are indulging in one of Mar Hall’s spa packages.

Each room and suite has been individually designed, but all have the same amenities: terry robes, colour TV, DVD/CD players, Aveda toiletries, mini bars etc. Facilities for the disabled are limited and pets are allowed only by prior arrangement.

Presently the bulk of Mar Hall’s business is corporate. It’s location, location of course: only 6 miles from the Glasgow Airport and 13 from City Centre, – yet so peaceful you’d never guess. Rooms overlook the River Clyde and Kilpatrick Hills (wherein an ancient hill fort hides) or the formal gardens, and footpaths wind through the estate.

Corporate clients don’t expect sentimental things like chocolates on the pillows at night, and don’t mind ringing the butler to make tea or coffee instead of having an unsightly tea tray and kettle about. They enjoy the convenience of Mar Hall’s seven meeting rooms, all the high-tech conference facilities, and are not shy about soothing their corporate stresses at the state-of-the-art Aveda Concept Spa.

The spa’s windowed lounge area, where one can lunch on organic treats, is surprisingly formal, with richly upholstered chairs where you dare not drop a crumb. The huge swimming pool is luscious, with water looking as rich and thick as blue jelly. There are Vichy Showers, a hair salon, a Fitness Centre, sauna and steam room. Twelve therapy rooms offer fusion stone massages, Reiki, aromatherapy and reflexology, Indian head massages, and rosemary mint awakening wraps. Not to mention manicures (popular with men) and pedicures.

In Mar Hall’s corniced-ceiling, crystal-chandeliered grand ballrooms and the Cigar Bar paneled with oak shipped from Quebec, you feel earldom in the air.

The Earl of Mar is the most ancient title in Great Britain according to the Ulster King-of-Arms. In Scotland’s ancient Pictland the province of Mar was one of the seven Pictish kingdoms. Its ruling governors were called “mormaors” until 1120A.D. when this Gaelic title was supplanted by the Saxon title of Earl. The “most famous” earl was the 11th Earl of Mar, who inspired the First Jacobite Rebellion to restore the Kingdom of Scotland. Other distinguished Earls of Mar became Regents of Scotland and Great Chamberlain of the Realm.

Mar Hall cites Donald who fought at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 as the earliest Mormaor, but the lineage of ghost floats back to 800 A.D. and a bizarre tale of Scottish revenge.

Melbrigda was a ninth century mormaor of Mar known to have a huge and prominent tooth. He was slain in battle by Sigurd, the first Scandinavian Earl of Orkney, who conquered northern Scotland and invaded the province of Mar. Sigurd chopped off Melbrigda’s head and slung it around his saddlebow, but as he galloped over the battlefield, the tooth in the severed head cut a nasty gash in Sigurd’s thigh and the wound festered and caused his death.

Toothy tales aside, Jim Kerr’s delectable cuisine in the Cristal Room offers guests and visitors a hugely varied menu based on fresh Scottish produce and inspired by tastes from around the globe. Do you like your fillet of Angus beef with roasted roots, asparagus and Madeira Jus--or with wasabi mash and pickled ginger gravy? Cauliflower and lemon soup, or sweet potato soup with chili oil?

Lighter meals are served in the Organic E Spa and the Grand Hall Gallery Exquisite Lounge.

Mar Hall’s Cristal Room gold and cream décor and river views makes a soothing setting for a full Scottish breakfast. From the menu I ordered Kedgeree - Scottish Smoked Salmon with scrambled eggs, but was crestfallen to learn there was no salmon. So kippers it was. Mar Hall might jazz up the breakfast menu with fresh muffins and croissants and fruits other than bananas and oranges. But would that be Scottish?

Articles

• More from Nancy Lyon