Built by The Earl of Seafield in 1822, the Cullen Hotel, later to become “The Seafield Arms” has always been renowned as fine Coaching Inn. The 5th Earl mainly used the hotel to entertain visitors to the extensive Seafield Estates which comprise of well over 100,000 acres in and around Cullen and over Grantown-On-Spey.
At the turn of the century, the hotel was gifted to the town of Cullen for use as a Town Hall. Latterly sold as a hotel the building had several owners until being re-purchased by Seafield Estates in 1971 with the intention of restoring and renovating to its former glory. Much money at that time was spent with no less than £225,000 being used for reconstruction to satisfy its discerning patrons with the decor and design being undertaken at that time by Mrs Nina Konig, a London designer and friend of Lady Seafield.
As it is today, the hotel was refurbished to a very high standard with an emphasis on the highest of quality and elegance displayed throughout. As the General Manager Mr David Assenti expressed in a newspaper article in 1973 “The aim is to create a warm, friendly and comfortable atmosphere, and at the same time the standards of service and cuisine properly associated with a really top-class hotel, and I am certain it has been achieved.” Very much the same values that we emulate in the present day.
