The Most Romantic Place to Stay in Edinburgh

We opened The Garden Rooms in 2013. In the years since, guests have proposed in our garden, come here on their wedding night, celebrated ten and twenty-year anniversaries, and returned year after year to mark the things that matter most. We did not design it for this. But we understand why it happens.

Why couples choose The Garden Rooms

Almost all Edinburgh short-term rentals are flats in tenement buildings. You share stairs. You share walls. You can hear neighbours. The building existed before the let, and the let exists inside the building. There is nothing private about it.

The Garden Rooms is different in a way that is hard to convey until you arrive. It is a self-contained stone building set within a private walled garden. There are no shared stairs. No shared walls. No neighbours who can hear you or see you. Your private entrance is through a garden gate. Once you step inside, you have an entire property and garden to yourselves.

In a city as densely built as Edinburgh, this kind of privacy is genuinely extraordinary. It is also exactly what a romantic occasion requires.

Proposals

More proposals have happened in this garden than we know about, because many guests never tell us. The ones who do, or whose partners email afterwards, come back to the same things: the privacy, the beauty of the garden at night with the festoon lights on, the outdoor bath beside them, the walled stone around them. A world of their own inside a city.

The Royal Botanic Gardens are two minutes on foot and are also a popular choice. Couples have proposed on the path beside the glasshouses, in the arboretum, on the terrace overlooking the city skyline. If you are planning something there, the timing is easier when you are staying two minutes from the gate.

If you let us know when you book, we will make sure everything is arranged on arrival. Prosecco, flowers, extra candles in the garden. We will not overdo it. But we will make sure the space is ready for whatever you have in mind. These extras are available at an additional charge — just ask.

For something more elaborate, we work with a decorator who can dress the garden for a proposal — flowers, balloons, a "Will You Marry Me" sign, that sort of thing — at an extra charge. If this is something you would like, get in touch with Sally directly to talk through what is possible, or take a look at our Instagram for photos of past setups.

Wedding nights and honeymoons

The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh hosts weddings in its buildings and grounds. It is one of the most beautiful wedding venues in Scotland, and The Garden Rooms is the closest accommodation. Many couples staying here are getting married at the Botanics or attending a wedding there. The walk between the two, through the gate and down the path, takes under two minutes.

For a wedding night, The Garden Rooms offers something that no hotel in Edinburgh can match: complete privacy, a beautiful garden, and a bath that is yours alone. No corridors. No other guests. No noise. Just the two of you, the garden, and whatever you brought with you.

Honeymoons often extend to a few nights. Couples use the studio as a base for exploring Edinburgh and return to the garden each evening. Several couples have told us it was the best accommodation they had stayed in anywhere, on any trip.

Anniversary and birthday stays

Returning guests are a particular joy of running this place. We have couples who have been coming back on their anniversary since before we can remember. Some come every year. Some come every few years and write to us when they book, telling us what has changed, what is the same, why they keep returning.

If you are marking a significant birthday or anniversary, let us know. We will do whatever we can to make the arrival special.

"My partner proposed in the garden on our last evening. I had no idea. The lights were on, the bath was running, and he had arranged for prosecco to be in the fridge. I have never stayed anywhere so completely perfect for a moment like that."

Guest, September 2024

What Sally does for special occasions

Every guest gets a welcome dram of whisky. For special occasions, we can arrange prosecco in the fridge and flowers in the garden (at an extra charge), and sometimes there is something unexpected too. None of it is elaborate. All of it is personal.

The house is prepared by hand for every guest. There is no cleaning team that visits and leaves. Sally and her family prepare the property, lay out the welcome, and make sure everything is right. When you arrive, you know someone has thought carefully about making it good.

The outdoor bath at night

In spring, the bath is surrounded by tulips and bluebells coming through the borders. In summer, long Scottish evenings mean the sky is light until 10pm and the garden glows warm. In autumn, the bath under early stars with the leaves changing in the Botanic Gardens is extraordinary. In winter, proper cold air around warm water, just the two of you, in complete quiet.

There is a reason so many romantic occasions end up at The Garden Rooms. The space does something that most accommodation cannot: it gives you somewhere to be entirely yourselves, with no one watching and nowhere else to be.