The latest luxury hotel amenity is a masterclass in survival training
Guests are paying €700 to learn how to eat, sleep and stay alive in the remotest of settings — all as part of their vacation at a five-star resort
The Fife Arms – owned by Swiss art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth fame – is one of the most luxurious hotels in Scotland, decorated with 16,000 pieces of art including works from Pablo Picasso and Lucian Freud.
It’s rife with royal connections – and even hosts a literary festival that counts Queen Camilla as an attendee – rooms at the 5-star property generally start at around £461 (€535). But with its latest offering, you’re more likely to see guests getting a Bear Grylls-esque survival masterclass than lazing about by the fire with a dram of whisky.
The new Survival Workshop Experience introduced to the hotel this autumn, teaches skills such as building outdoor shelters with animal skins, cooking without the help of modern tools and butchering a just-caught animal.
“We’re very open and upfront about the experience,” says Darren Mann, a ghillie (concierge) at the hotel. “If guests are expecting a cosy pleasant wander in the woods, that’s not what they’re going to get.”
Mann says that ever since the pandemic, he’s noticed an uptick in guests who are interested in more practical skill-building as well as “back to basics” experiences out in nature.
“We are seeing guests wanting to get outside their comfort zones,” he explains, pointing to the popularity of open water swimming as an example. At Fife Arms, guests can dip into the bracingly cold waters of nearby rivers and lochs – which staff have seen them do even when it’s rainy or snowy.
The new Survival Workshop, priced from €700, builds on that demand. It takes guests an hour north from the hotel on twisting roads through the craggy green hilltops of the Cairngorms National Park to the home of wilderness expert Zeki Basan, founder and head instructor of Highland Survival Skills – a local legend known for having lived alone in a tipi in the middle of the wilderness when he was just 16. Now he’s passing on his knowledge, teaching guests how to live exclusively off the land.
On arrival at Basan’s property, guests pull up to a remote glen, where he has a base set up in the ancient Caledonian forest. What follows is effectively an extreme version of foraging: Guests roam the woods while learning about the medicinal, practical and edible uses of mushrooms and other local plants, while collecting enough herbs and wild ingredients to comprise a meal.
Then they butcher an animal and prepare said meal without any modern-day tools. The only thing guests are spared is a proper hunt; the wild game used for the meal – which could be a rabbit, deer or a bird – will have already been caught by Basan earlier in the week.
But guests participate in the preparation of the animal, lighting a fire with flint (no cheating with cigarette lighters), and then creating a feast to enjoy around its embers. Throughout, Basan imparts his knowledge in his signature soft-spoken demeanour –more nurturing guide than military-style drill instructor.
That said, the experience is not for the squeamish. Guests are encouraged to be hands-on in every lesson, whether it’s skinning the animal to get to the meat or creating a shelter with the resulting hides. They can also learn how to find and purify fresh water or transform a glen into warm overnight shelter.
As much as guests seem inclined to sign up for the class as a way to learn practical skills, Basan says they come away most impressed by the cultural context: what they glean, ultimately, is what life was like in rural Scotland before the advent of modern conveniences.
Amid the ease of 21st century life, it gives them a better understanding of nature – even if they have no real-life application for the survival skills on a day-to-day level.
For those looking for less high-octane activities, Fife Arms has plenty of activities that fall squarely within the traditional lap of luxury – be it castle tours or gentle walks through the woods accompanied by poetry readings.
As unconventional as survival skills courses may be, Basan argues that they are transformational – to borrow a hospitality industry buzzword that often comes up empty.
“It’s an experience that makes people feel like they’re connected to the land in a far greater way than if they were to just go on on a fishing or hiking day. They’re learning and practising skills that date back thousands of years,” he explains.
“There’s no saying, oh it’s 12:30, let’s stop now for a lunch break. The meal is ready when we’ve gathered it, when it’s prepared. We’re on nature’s time.”
