Norton House Hotel, a stunning mid Victorian country house hotel set in 55 acres of parkland in Ingliston, outside Edinburgh, has unveiled a £13 million facelift.   The hotel has revealed 36 stylish new rooms and luxury suites, as well as state-of-the-art conference and banqueting facilities.

Norton House’s 36 new contemporary bedrooms include three duplex suites and a spacious and stylish penthouse with views overlooking the Kingdom of Fife. Designed by leading Scottish interior designers Thompson Macleod, the rooms offer sumptuous furnishings and are designed in vibrant hues of greens and purples. Although a traditional country house hotel, Norton House is by no means old fashioned, each room and suite is equipped with modern technology including MP3 ports, plasma screens and high speed broadband as well as air conditioning and Internet Protocol television.

Norton House Hotel is also set to reveal a new luxury spa and health club, scheduled to open in January 2008 offering ESPA products and therapies.   The new spa will provide signature spa therapies in seven treatment rooms, an 18m x 7m indoor swimming pool and a spacious hydrotherapy pool.  The range of ESPA treatments on offer include facial, body and beauty treatments ranging from Holistic Aromatherapy Facials, Age Defying Facials to Skin Hydrating Mud Wraps. 

Visitors to Norton House will be able to relax and energise at the health club which will offer guests a range of facilities including a fully equipped gym, group exercise studio, steam room and sauna.  Norton House’s health club is also home to a Power Plate Acceleration Training machine, the latest trend from LA, claimed to deliver great results. The Power Plate’s vibrating base helps condition the body, stimulating muscles whilst exercising and serves to enhance the effect of conventional aerobics. 

For those combining business with pleasure, the new development also offers spacious conference rooms, accommodating meetings for two to 200 delegates.  With flexible seating layouts and impeccable service, guests can host events in the Garden Suite which can also be separated into two separate areas The Orchard and The Meadow Suite.   Each of the areas are available for exclusive use at bespoke events, arranged by the Norton House meetings coordinators.

Ronnie MacKay, General Manager for Norton House Hotel & Spa commented
“We are delighted to announce the opening of our new bedrooms and facilities at Norton House and look forward to welcoming guests for both leisure and business.  With the new spa and health club opening in January 2008, we are confident that this will only further cement Norton House’s reputation as being one of the area’s finest hotels offering leisure and business facilities in a stylish country house setting‘.

For a full list of Hand Picked Hotels, visit handpicked.co.uk or to contact Norton House  directly, please ring 0845 072 7468.

Notes to editors
The award-winning Hand Picked Hotels collection, created by former City lawyer Julia Hands, are luxurious country house hotels renowned for exquisite food, fine wines and excellent service in stylish, relaxing surroundings. There are 14 hotels across the UK, with locations ranging from the New Forest and Jersey to Yorkshire and Edinburgh.  Hand Picked Hotels has focused on the quality of its service and cuisine and in the last three years 12 hotels have achieved two AA rosette status with Norton House in Edinburgh winning three AA rosettes.  Six hotels have achieved red star status, being recognised as amongst the AA’s Top 200 hotels in the UK & Ireland. In 2007, Julia Hands was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the hospitality industry.

For media information please contact Natalie Amos/Lisa Ronchetti at Four Communications at hph@fourcommunications.com or telephone +44 (0)870 444 4568