Inside Edinburgh’s ‘boatel’: what it’s like to stay on the ship named Britain’s ‘best luxury hotel’ for 2024

It’s a hotel that would almost certainly float your boat.

For starters, it’s a boat. Then there’s the fact that it was named Britain’s Best Luxury Hotel at the 2024 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards.

Forget any ideas about sailing the Seven Seas, though, because this 62-year-old ship isn’t going anywhere – she’s permanently moored on the lively waterfront of Leith Harbour, close to the equally static Royal Yacht Britannia. The trust that owns Queen Elizabeth’s retired ship bought the MV Fingal in 2014 and over a number of years converted it into a five-star hotel.

In his previous life, Fingal was a Clyde-built tender who roamed the North and Irish Seas for thirty years for the Northern Lighthouse Sign (NLB), which transports lighthouse keepers and supplies to Scotland’s dangerous cliffs.

The Fingal hotel has just 22 rooms, one of which is the Skerryvore suite, a luxurious space that has been repurposed and expanded much from a sparse hut that once slept in Princess Anne, patron of the NLB since 1993 Her Royal Highness spent nights aboard the work-a-day ship during supply missions, and she also slept in the Skerryvore suite after Fingal’s £5 million conversion.

Carlton Reid checked into a luxury duplex suite at Fingal – a Clyde-built tender that was named Britain’s Best Luxury Hotel at the 2024 Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards

The ship pictured here spent thirty years “roving the Northern and Irish Seas for the Northern Lighthouse Board,” Carlton notes.

The ship’s decommissioned engine is shown behind glass on both sides of a panoramic walkway (above)

The suite has outdoor seating on a private terrace, but due to Leith’s aggressive seagulls it is advisable that if you are going to order a room service meal, you eat it indoors at the eight-seater dining table, rather than risk sitting outside to go.

The rooms are named after 22 of the 200 lighthouses that the Fingal once visited.

We stayed in Ornsay, a luxury duplex suite.

This has an upstairs seating area that is connected to the downstairs bedroom by a spiral staircase. The curved exterior wall of our bedroom reminded us that this space is the hull of a ship.

Behind it is a luxurious bathroom with a freestanding bath and a gigantic shower cabin.

Noble Isle’s toiletries are supplemented with the Scottish seaweed-based cosmetic brand Ishga. As well as fragrances, there was also an Ishga sea salt scrub and the company’s £39 bag of natural Hebrides seaweed. After exfoliating with the scrub, we placed the seaweed under running water for an aromatic bath. (That smell is of course the salty coast.)

“The rooms are named after 22 of the 200 lighthouses that the Fingal ever visited,” says Carlton. Above is the Kinnaird duplex

Carlton stayed in the ‘Ornsay’ suite (upstairs) and says: ‘The curved outer wall of our bedroom reminded us that this space is the hull of a ship’

Upstairs – Carlton’s own toiletries

The bath taps on Fingal are made of knurled brass and the ship features many other fixtures and accessories with a nautical and lighthouse theme.

There are coat racks shaped like anchors, leather-bound chairs modeled on the ship’s original navigation chair, and a circular elevator next to the reception desk that resembles the lens of a lighthouse lamp.

For originalists, MV Fingal logbooks are on display on the ship’s bridge, and downstairs the ship’s decommissioned engine is on display behind glass on either side of a panoramic walkway.

The bedspreads and cushions on the beds are made from a Fingal-specific tartan with yellow accents by Scottish designer Araminta Campbell. At the head of each bed is a molded suede map of the location of the lighthouse after which each room is named.

Fingal’s Art Deco Lighthouse restaurant (pictured) offers ‘excellent food’

MV Fingal’s logbooks are on display on the ship’s former bridge

The ballroom (above) at Fingal, which opened in 2019, features a gallery for musicians

Fingal’s Art Deco Lighthouse restaurant offers exquisite cuisine, including Wester Ross salmon smoked in the ship’s smokehouse.

As an aperitif, it would be rude not to try a G&T made with Fingal Gin, with orange blossom, grapefruit and a dash of Fingal’s own tea.

Fingal opened in 2019 with 23 rooms. One of them was later converted into a large pantry.

I mention this mundane detail because space on board is at a premium and – as the hotel is often fully booked months in advance – an extra room would be a nice little earner, but the thinking of the Fingal’s management is that it is better to one less space to have and more space to meet the needs of the boutique hotel’s discerning guests.

This emphasis on customer service explains how Fingal not only scooped this year’s Tripadvisor award, but also last year’s AA Scottish Hotel of the Year award.

Stay here and you’ll soon understand why Leith’s ‘boatel’ continues to rack up these awards.