The Tower Suite: A Golden Era Reborn

Returning guests have always been the beating heart of Gleneagles. In the years after its opening, ‘The Gleneagles Three Hundred’ were coined to describe the hotel’s most fashionable regular guests who came back every summer, often taking the same suite for three or four weeks at a time. It was then that guests would acquire their own glittering social calendar upstairs as well as down. 

This was the era of the suite party; when fellow regulars would take it in turns to invite each other to their decadent suites for glamorous cocktail parties each evening. It was a time to see and be seen. We still have the handwritten notes from these exchanges, when our regular families would leave farewell notes to friends, new and old, corresponding through the guest books in their rooms 

An enchanting time; these stories have inspired our two-year renovation and redesign of The Tower Suite, a one-of-a-kind space spanning three floors with a private roof terrace, set over the hotel’s grand entrance. As you clear the bend of our grand approach, it’s the first thing you’ll see, rising proudly from the centre of our home under the Ochil Hills, just below the twirling Saltire.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to do something very special here,” explains Charlie North, Global VP of Design at AIME Studios, who headed up the interiors. “While much of the hotel is designed in the light, airy Edwardian Baroque style, which was popular when Gleneagles was first conceived, we’ve leaned into the glamour and opulence of the Art Deco period.” 

The design team has reimagined the Tower Suite as a jewel box; wrapping its walls in rich, polished timber, stealing burnished hues from the surrounding Ochil Hills in autumn, and favouring sumptuous velvets and show-stealing marble. “It’s completely unique,” continues North. “Not only is it our only suite with multiple floors and a roof terrace – offering 360 degrees of the landscape – architecturally speaking, the ceilings are low, and the windows are smaller; it’s much cosier than some of our other spaces, suiting the heady, night-time glamour of Art Deco style.”

Gleneagles’ initial phase of construction was paused during the First World War. When it picked back up in 1922, times had changed. The roaring twenties were about celebrating life, freedom, generosity and indulgence, all of which is reflected in the decadence of our American Bar, an unlikely muse for The Tower Suite’s inspiration. A stunning example of this design era, AIME pored over the original plans and black-and-white photos of the space. Not only for aesthetic ideas, but to capture the original Gleneagles spirit of hosting. 

“We could have prioritised another bedroom in the suite,” says North of the one-bedroom residence. “But we deliberately chose not to. Instead, we’ve designed a stand-out dining room with custom lighting, antique 1938 dining chairs by Scottish artist Archibald Taylor and my favourite feature: a marble-clad, cocktail nook, fitted with spotlights to make glassware sparkle. It’s directly inspired by the cocktail stations guests used to entertain in their rooms decades ago.”

Evenings in the Tower Suite are designed to feel like a journey. Guests are welcomed into the deep-red entrance hall, a beautiful space to hang coats, finished with a gleaming lacquer finish. An elegant dinner follows in the dining room, before heading upstairs to the lounge for nightcaps. Finally, the rooftop terrace offers another layer to festivities, where friends can gather to continue conversation into the night, gaze at the stars, with cigars in hand. It’s the ultimate hosting experience. 

“The Tower Suite has never stopped evolving,” says Iris Marhencke, Guest Relations Host since 1992 and unofficial Gleneagles historian. “It was built as a grand design feature over the entrance where guests have now been welcomed for over a century, and was originally staff quarters. Initially it was where the head housekeeper resided, then later the seamstress and finally it was transformed into a library for our guests. It wasn’t until later that it became a unique suite for guests to enjoy.”

At Gleneagles, we’re always careful to look back, as well as forward, and the Tower Suite has more tales to tell than most. With subtle design moments, we’ve left hidden messages for guests through antiques sourced, artworks chosen and thoughtful touches like bespoke bookshelf curation for every stay based on your preferences – a romantic nod to the space’s former life as a library. 

The suite’s artwork scheme tells its own story, too. “Gleneagles has always had one foot in the landscape and another in the wider world,” says Sigrid Kirk, art curator and co-founder of AWITA who helped put together the unrivalled artworks in the space. “I wanted the curation to reference the hotel’s history as a destination, bringing an international and distinctly European sensibility into the extraordinary Perthshire landscape.”

On the walls you’ll find original works by British and European artists rooted in the post-war period like Scottish modernist William Johnstone, next to early abstract work by Dame Maggi Hambling, one of Britain’s most distinctive living artists, as well as prints by Picasso. 

Both the living room and bedroom feature bespoke, hand-painted murals by artist Nancy Daniell, who references the quiet, nature-based composition of Japanese chinoiserie wallpaper. Her own interpretation pays homage to native trees, ferns, wildflowers and birds of Perthshire, with a textured, grounding finish. 

The Tower Suite may have seen many chapters already, but we think this one brings its most exciting yet; a chance for new stories, not yet written.