Crieff Hydro opened in 1868 as a hydropathic hotel — one of many Victorian establishments that offered water-cure treatments as a fashionable alternative to medicine. Most of those places have long since become ordinary hotels or fallen derelict. Crieff Hydro became something else entirely: a sprawling, 900-acre family resort that has been a Scottish institution for more than 150 years, still owned by the same family that has run it for generations.
The scale is astonishing for a private hotel. There are multiple swimming pools, a spa, a riding school, quad biking, archery, a nine-hole golf course, a cinema, bowling, and enough restaurants and bars to keep guests occupied without venturing into town. During school holidays the grounds are crowded with families who return year after year — it has a devoted following among Scots who remember it from their own childhoods.
Even if you're not staying, the grounds are worth a walk and several of the facilities are accessible to day visitors. The main building is a Victorian pile that was heavily extended in the twentieth century — it is not architecturally distinguished, but its position on the hill above Crieff, looking south over Strathearn, is superb.