Steph Murray and her family have just have sunk £1.5 million into the renovation of a near-forgotten hotel in Speyside.
The refit includes a new wine bar and a complete overhaul of the hotel’s 11 bedrooms. But ask Steph what her favourite part of the new-look building is and she doesn’t mention any of that.
What she likes best is the monkey wallpaper.
“It’s really, really unique,” Steph says of the unusual decoration in Hotel 1881’s private dining room.
“When we first looked at it, and we thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s not going to work anywhere’. And then we put it up on the wall, and it just really worked so well in the space.”
A Speyside regeneration
The wallpaper is just one of the many new additions to Speyside’s Hotel 1881, which the Murray family has spent almost four years overhauling.
The family – which also include Steph’s sister Lauren and their parents Marie and Michael – own The Dowan’s Hotel in Aberlour and in 2018 decided to take a chance on adding a new property to the family empire. They set their sights on the Archiestown Hotel in the tiny Speyside village of the same name.
The country house had everything you need in a hotel – a beautiful 19th century building with great views and some of the world’s most famous whisky distilleries on its doorstep. It lacked just one important detail – guests.
The Murrays didn’t publicise their purchase of the hotel, so there was no reason for guests to stay away.
But for six months, not one request came in to the hotel’s booking system.
“It kind of says a lot about what the business was operating as before we took over,” says Steph.
“When we took it on, there was one member of staff, and that was someone in the accounts department who worked two hours a week.”
The changes made to Hotel 1881
The hotel needed some love and care. So, for the next few years (a period unavoidably extended because of the Covid lockdown) the Murrays completely refitted the hotel.
Its name was changed to Hotel 1881 to reflect the year it was built.
Out went the 12 bedrooms to be replaced by 11 refurbished in the boutique-hotel style.
A bar and fine dining restaurant were added, and the garden redeveloped to make the most of the views of the 841-metre-high Ben Rinnes.
The Murrays also knocked down a few walls to make the hotel more open plan
“There were a lot of weirdly constructed walls within the original concept of the building,” Steph explains.
“So you essentially, walk through the front door, hit a wall, then turn to face another wall. It felt very boxed in, so what we wanted to do was create a bit more of an open space to make it a little bit more inviting.”
When can you book a room at Hotel 1881?
Hotel 1881 had its official launch party last week and has already welcomed its first guests.
The restaurant is yet to fully come online, but the hotel is operating as a B&B for corporate clients, and is expected to be opening to guests soon.
It is a whole new venture for the Murrays, who have run The Dowans since December 2012.
According to the family, Hotel 1881 complements its sister hotel. Steph says it targets a younger traveler looking for more colour and quirk.
Whereas The Dowans is well-known for its stocked whisky bar, Hotel 1881’s equivalent has a wide range of spirits lesser-seen in Speyside – Cognacs, Tequilas and rums from independent producers.
Meanwhile, Steph, who previously worked as a manager at Glasgow’s luxury boutique hotel One Devonshire Gardens, has spent a lot of time working on the hotel’s wine bar.
She says it’s another point of difference for guests.
“Clearly, at The Dowans, we’ve got wine, and all the other major hotels in the area, have wine,” she adds. “But it’s not the focus of their business. So a wine bar is not something that we feel is present in Speyside.”
What can you expect at Speyside’s Hotel 1881?
Meanwhile, Steph will bring her family’s experience of running The Dowans to the new hotel.
For example, guests might notice the seat covers at 1881 are not the slinkiest. But they are reassuringly people-proof.
“We’ve learned our lesson in The Dowans of not putting in huge amounts of investment into these amazing materials that actually are just not hard-wearing enough for being touched, sat on and have drinks spilt on by thousands of people over the course of a year,” Steph says.
Hotel 1881 will be open for bookings soon. Rooms cost between £190-240 per night for double occupancy.
To book, guests can email The Dowans Hotel at enquiries@dowanshotel.com or call 01340 871 488.