Highland spring: escaping to an art hotel in the Cairngorms

Taxidermy, tartan walls and modern art give the revamped Fife Arms hotel, in Aberdeenshire, a shot of wild dramaOne of the books artfully piled up on the coffee table in the German Emperor, our Victoriana-themed bedroom in the Fife Arms hotel in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, was a copy of Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain. The windows opposite our canopied bed looked directly on to Braemar Kirk and to the Cairngorms beyond. It’s here where Shepherd, the Scottish poet, novelist and hill-wa