Kim & Andy Murray on Scotland, Cromlix, and their next chapter

Readers may know you for obvious reasons, but could you introduce yourselves in your own words?

Kim: I’m Kim, I’ve been married to Andy for 11 years and we have four children. I’ve been managing Cromlix for the past two years – we had a management company running the hotel, but in 2023 took it back to manage it ourselves – and so between that, and the family, that’s what has been keeping me busy.

Andy: I’m Andy, I used to play tennis

It’s been a time of change for you both, especially with Andy having retired from tennis in 2024. What has that been like?

Kim: It’s been good. We were lucky to have time to prepare for Andy’s retirement and he got to do it on his own terms at the Olympics which was great. We had a pretty jam-packed summer, got away on some holidays, then had a busy family Christmas.

Let’s rewind a little. How did you end up owning a hotel in Scotland?

Kim: Andy and I bought the hotel in 2013. We didn’t really set out to be hoteliers, but the property had lots of links with the Murray family. Andy’s grandparents actually held the first ever event there when the house changed from being a family home to a hotel – they had their silver wedding anniversary celebrations at Cromlix. And there have been plenty of other family occasions over the years. When Andy found out the hotel was facing closure, he wanted to step in and keep it open as a special venue for local people and a source of jobs in the Dunblane community.

You’ve previously described Cromlix as a home from home, rather than a hotel. Why does it mean so much to you both?

Kim: It’s a very special place for us, particularly now it’s been refurbished in our style. It is comfortable and elegant and has a real sense of warmth, which I think comes from the amazing team we’ve got working there. I feel like I relax as soon as I step through the door. I’m a country girl at heart, so I just love being in the beautiful Scottish countryside, especially at this time of year.

Andy: Yes, I think that’s a big part of it for me too. I don’t get back to Scotland as much as I like, and I do miss the scenery and the countryside. I like the feeling of space you get in Scotland. We also held our wedding at Cromlix. That’s another reason it’s important to me as well as the links it’s got to my family – I have happy memories of being at Cromlix when I was younger.

Kim, you called it ‘serendipitous timing’ to take on the recent refurbishment of Cromlix with interior designer Suzanne Garuda. Where did the idea come from?

Kim: We’d owned Cromlix for ten years and it had been managed by a management agency, who did a great job, but we felt ready for a change. The whole place needed updating and I knew if we sold the hotel or handed it back to the management company, I would have missed out on a great opportunity. I think I would have kicked myself if somebody else had done it instead of us.

At that point, we’d literally just finished our own house, and I’d had such a brilliant working relationship with Suzanne on that. When I floated the idea of Cromlix to her, we were both so excited. We knew we could do a great job of transforming the house into something really special.

What was the process like from start to finish?

Kim: It was a huge project. It wasn’t just the refurbishment, which was my favourite bit of it all. We had to bring in a new team. We rebranded the whole business. We had to set up all the systems and processes for ourselves, from scratch. There were so many planning meetings, budget meetings, design meetings, meetings upon meetings! But it was, overall, a great experience and a huge learning curve.

The interiors go beyond what people might expect from a Scottish hotel. How did you approach that?

Kim: We wanted to move away from the traditional idea of a Scottish country hotel, with lots of tartan and tweed. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we wanted it to be different and for the Scottish elements to come through in other areas. For example, we have lots of Scottish art on the walls which are on loan from the Scottish Royal Academy. Almost all of our staff are local and they bring that lovely warm Scottish welcome to all of our guests.

We also wanted to reflect the Scottish countryside inside the hotel too, so the colour scheme is inspired by nature, the rooms are all named after wildflowers that grow on the Estate, the new logo features the Virginia Creeper that grows on the outside of the building. It’s botanically themed throughout, and that appreciation of what is right here on our doorstep makes it feel very Scottish to me.

Take us behind the scenes – what does managing the hotel involve?

Kim: Since switching to self-management in 2023, that’s meant that Andy and I have a much more active role in the day-to-day management of Cromlix. It doesn’t mean we’re here all the time, or are hands-on with guests. But we speak regularly with the management team, who are doing a brilliant job. We are responsible for the overall vision and direction of the hotel – at the moment, I’m really enjoying planning for the new wellness facility we’ve got opening next year and our restaurant which will come in 2026. We are involved in the recruitment of senior staff and the overall wellbeing of our team – that’s important to both of us – and budget management too. And I write for our newsletter every month!

49 Cromlix feels like a love letter to Scotland, with local makers, ingredients, designers and suppliers all given their moment in the spotlight. What are some of your personal favourites from inside the hotel?

Andy: Our Executive Head Chef works with a local supplier of ice cream called Milk & Honey. They produce this amazing ice cream. I don’t know which one is my favourite – they have so many good flavours! Definitely worth trying if you are at the hotel.

Kim: When we refurbished the hotel last year, the Eden family, who previously owned Cromlix, sent us an original guest book that had been at the house in the 1800s. We’ve got it available to show to guests if they’d like to see it. It’s got such interesting messages and beautiful paintings and sketches from people that stayed at Cromlix when it was a family home. It’s lovely to see how it was used then and we have tried to emulate that relaxed country house feel with what we now offer at the hotel. I also love the MODM toiletries that we have in all of the bedrooms. The products are handmade in Edinburgh and smell divine.

Cromlix won the AA Hotel of the Year Scotland 2024-25 award, congratulations! Looking ahead, what will the next year bring for Cromlix?

Kim: We’ll be opening a new suite in the spring inside the main house, and later in 2025, we will be opening our new wellness cottage. It will be a two-person treatment area, set in a tranquil space in the middle of the woodland here on the Estate. We will be working with local suppliers to provide a bespoke menu of treatments.

Then the following year, we will be adding three bedrooms inside the main house, including an accessible ground floor suite, and a brand-new, 80 cover restaurant. Our current restaurant, The Glasshouse, is so busy with bookings, we need to expand to accommodate the demand from hotel guests and local people. The existing restaurant will become an event area and will be used for afternoon teas.

Let’s talk about Scotland. We’d love to know what your perfect day looks like when you’re here with your family?

Kim: Mainly when we are up in Scotland, we are either at the hotel or visiting Andy’s family. We’ve brought the children up to the hotel quite a few times in the past couple of years, and they mainly love just running around the grounds. They love the chickens, and the swing!

Andy: An ideal day for me would probably be a round of golf with my brother, followed by a visit to Easter Road stadium to watch Hibs [Hibernian Football Club]. And then I’d pop into my grandparents’ house in Dunblane for some shortbread. When I was up in the summer of 2023, we went to the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow to go and see the Banksy exhibition. That was great.

Are there any other locations in Scotland that are special to you? 

Kim: I always love seeing the Kelpies and Stirling Castle as we drive towards Cromlix. That signals to me that we are getting close. I love that we have such strong visual landmarks so near to the hotel.

Andy, you’re planning a tour with a difference in 2025. Could you tell us more about Centre Stage? 

Andy: I’m going to be touring four different theatres with Centre Stage – two in Scotland, two in London. The show will include stories from my tennis career, and hopefully some special guests too. I’m lucky that [sports broadcaster] Andrew Cotter has agreed to be the host for the show. He’s such a funny guy. I’m looking forward to working with him on it.

How did the idea for the tour come about? 

Andy: I’d said to my team that I wanted to challenge myself after my retirement from tennis. This will definitely do that. I don’t think a tennis player has ever done a theatre tour like this before, so hopefully people enjoy it. We got a great reaction to the tickets going on sale, so now I just need to start rehearsing.

The photo for Centre Stage is you getting knocked in the face with a tennis ball! What do you think it is about the Scottish outlook on life that makes our country and people so well-loved? 

Andy: I think we don’t take ourselves too seriously. I think people like that.

You’ve played sports from a young age and now you’re getting back into golf. Do you think growing up in Scotland played a part in your love of sport, Andy? 

Andy: I think my family had the biggest impact on my love of sport. Both my parents were into sport, and obviously I grew up always trying to beat Jamie – at everything! Being a Scottish tennis player was quite challenging most of the time because the weather was so bad, so I guess that probably meant I really loved tennis because otherwise I just wouldn’t have gone out to play.

You’ve both spent a lot of time travelling internationally. How has this changed your relationship to home and Scotland? Kim: I am definitely a homemaker and so whilst I love travelling, I also really appreciate coming home too.

Andy: I’ve been lucky recently to have had a bit more time, so I’ve been able to get up to Scotland more than when I was playing tennis. I’m going to be travelling again quite a lot in 2025, but now I’m playing more golf, I definitely want to be back up in Scotland as much as I can.

words //Laura Anne Brown -photography //portraits: Verena Splett, all others: Cromlix