It is a lodge that might nearly actually float your boat.
For starters, it is a boat. Then there’s the truth that it has been named the UK’s finest luxurious lodge within the 2024 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Selection Awards.Â
Neglect any concepts about crusing the Seven Seas, although, as a result of this 62-year-old vessel is not going wherever – it is completely berthed on the Port of Leith’s vibrant waterfront, near the equally static Royal Yacht Britannia. The belief that owns Queen Elizabeth’s retired ship purchased MV Fingal in 2014, changing it over a number of years right into a five-star lodge.
In its former life, Fingal was a Clyde-built tender that, for 30 years, roamed the North and Irish Seas for the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), ferrying lighthouse keepers and provides to Scotland’s perilous rocky outcrops.
Fingal the lodge has simply 22 rooms, considered one of which is the Skerryvore suite, an expensive house repurposed and far expanded from a sparse cabin as soon as slept in by Princess Anne, NLB’s patron since 1993. Her Royal Highness stayed nights on board the work-a-day ship throughout resupply missions, and she or he has additionally slept within the Skerryvore suite following Fingal’s £5million conversion.
Carlton Reid checked in to a luxurious duplex suite at Fingal – a Clyde-built tender named the UK’s finest luxurious lodge within the 2024 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Selection AwardsÂ
The ship, pictured right here, spent 30 years roaming ‘the North and Irish Seas for the Northern Lighthouse Board’, notes Carlton
The ship’s decommissioned engine is displayed behind glass on each side of a panoramic walkway (above)
The suite has out of doors seating on a non-public deck, however, due to Leith’s aggressive seagulls, if you happen to’re going to order a room service meal, it’s advisable to eat it on the eight-person eating desk indoors moderately than threat going al fresco.
Rooms are named for 22 of the 200 lighthouses that the Fingal as soon as visited.Â
We stayed in Ornsay, a luxurious duplex suite.Â
This has an higher sitting space linked to the bed room under with a spiral staircase. The curved outer wall of our bed room reminded us that this house is the ship’s hull.
Past is an expensive toilet with a freestanding bathtub and a gargantuan bathe cubicle.Â
Noble Isle toiletries are complemented by the Scottish seaweed-based cosmetics model Ishga. Along with smellies, there was an Ishga sea-salt scrub and the corporate’s £39 bag of pure Hebridean seaweed. After exfoliating with the scrub we positioned the seaweed underneath working water for an fragrant bathtub. (That aroma, after all, is salty seashore.)
‘Rooms are named for 22 of the 200 lighthouses that the Fingal as soon as visited,’ says Carlton. Above is the Kinnaird duplex
Carlton stayed within the ‘Ornsay’ suite (above) and says: ‘The curved outer wall of our bed room reminded us this house is the ship’s hull’
Above – Carlton’s ensuite toiletriesÂ
Tub faucets on Fingal are constituted of knurled brass, with the ship sporting many different nautical and lighthouse-themed fixtures and fittings.Â
There are coat pegs formed like anchors, leather-bound chairs modelled on the ship’s authentic navigator’s chair, and a round elevate beside the reception that resembles a lighthouse lamp’s lens.Â
For originalists there are MV Fingal log books on show on the ship’s bridge, and, down under, the ship’s decommissioned engine is displayed behind glass on each side of a panoramic walkway.
Throws and cushions on the beds are customary from a Fingal-specific yellow-accented tartan by Scottish designer Araminta Campbell. On the head of every mattress, there’s a contoured needlepoint suede map of the lighthouse locale for which every room is known as.
Fingal’s Artwork Deco Lighthouse restaurant (pictured) gives ‘excellent meals’
MV Fingal log books are on show on the ship’s former bridge
The ballroom (above) on Fingal, which opened in 2019, encompasses a gallery for musicians
Fingal’s Artwork Deco Lighthouse restaurant gives excellent meals, together with Wester Ross salmon smoked within the ship’s onboard smokehouse.Â
As an aperitif, it will be impolite to not pattern a G&T made with Fingal Gin, which options orange blossom, grapefruit, and a splash of Fingal’s personal tea.
Fingal opened in 2019 with 23 rooms. Considered one of them was later was a big provides cabinet.Â
I point out this mundane element as a result of house is at a premium on board and – with the lodge usually booked up months prematurely — an additional room can be a pleasant little earner, however the considering of the Fingal’s administration goes that it’s higher to have one fewer room and more room to service the wants of the boutique lodge’s discerning visitors.
This emphasis on buyer care explains how Fingal not solely landed this yr’s Tripadvisor award, however final yr’s AA Scottish Lodge of the Yr gong.
Keep right here and also you’ll quickly perceive why Leith’s ‘boatel’ retains hauling in these awards.