The Glasshouse

The façade of the 150-year-old Lady Glenorchy church conceals a hotel with floor to ceiling windows, vast baths and a huge lavender-scented roof garden. Located on buzzy Greenside Place in the East End between the busy Omni centre and the Edinburgh Playhouse, this winner of numerous awards and plaudits for coolness, hip-ness and style has 65 rooms and wonderful views of Calton Hill. In summer the roof garden, one of Europe’s biggest, has an other-worldly, Californian feel but should you have to flee inside from the weather, under floor heating in all bathrooms will keep you toastie.