3 of a kind
Hotels that made history
CULLODEN HOUSE, SCOTLAND
Inverness, Scotland, tel: 0044-1463 790461, cullodenhouse.co.uk
Bonnie Prince Charlie used this great country house as his lodgings and headquarters during the ill-fated battle of Culloden in April 1746 (against his cousin the Duke of Cumberland, who was fighting to keep his dad George II on the throne). Both men were 25.
The prince was the grandson of James IV of Scotland and II of England and Ireland, the very same man who fought at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, a year after being effectively turfed off the throne by William and Mary. James was the last Catholic king to reign over Ireland, Scotland and England and Bonnie Prince Charlie (or Charles Edward Stuart aka the Young Pretender) was in the Jacobite movement that tried to put the Stuarts back on the throne.
The Battle of Culloden had other historical repercussions: it was the last full-scale battle fought on British soil and saw the end of the Highland clans (which were devoted to the Jacobites). After the battle the English parliament banned bagpipes and tartan. Many of the clan diaspora return to visit the battle site (a 180-acre moor managed by the National Trust of Scotland) and stay at the four-star hotel.
Another visitor to this historic house was Robert Adam, who helped to renovate it in the late 1700s, giving it its Palladian style, airy interiors and ornate plasterwork and fireplaces. The hotel is on its own grounds and classical sports on offer include croquet and tennis. Or you can wander the gardens, wildflower meadows and forest trails.
Rooms:there are 28 bedrooms, ranging from standard doubles, to those with garden views as well as suites. Doubles from £270 (€339). Or you can book the whole house – which sleeps up to 54 people – for £14,000 a day (€17,571).
SCHLOSSHOTEL CECILIENHOF, GERMANY
Neuer Garten, Potsdam, tel: 0049 331 37050, relexa-hotel-potsdam.de
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Princess Cecilie built this palace for themselves in an English country manor, half-timbered style (inspired by Little Moreton Hall) between 1914 and 1917. The construction of the house in Potsdam, a town butting Berlin on its southwest side, was held up by the first World War but after the second World War it became the setting for the Potsdam conference in which the ‘Big three’ – the victorious Allies – met between July 17th and August 2nd, 1945 to decide the terms for the end of the war. This included drawing up post-war European borders and deciding what to do about Germany.
