Balbirnie House is Europe's Top Wedding Venue

A landmark Scottish hotel has been recognised as Europe's top wedding venue by a prestigious global awards initiative.

Balbirnie House in Fife received the accolade from Haute Grandeur - an organisation which ranks and assists hotels and whose awards are regarded as the pinnacle of achievement for hotels around the world.

Balbirnie's owners Nicholas and Gaynor Russell collected the award at a glittering awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi (on 20^th October).

The latest honour for Balbirnie House, at Markinch, comes hard on the heels from being named earlier this year as Scotland's 2016 National Hotel of the Year, at the Scottish Hotel Awards.

At the same awards, the hotel was also named Scotland's top wedding venue, for the tenth time in 12 years.

Nicholas Russell said: "This latest award is an amazing accolade for Balbirnie, and we are all completely blown away by it. For such a prestigious organisation to decide we are the best in Europe is truly humbling, and it was an absolute honour to attend and represent Scotland's hospitality sector."

"We have such a tremendous team at Balbirnie and this is attributable in a major way to everyone's hard work. We're blessed too that Balbirnie has a stunning location and magnificent grounds, and we have augmented this internally by creating a blend of lived-in country vintage and contemporary chic, which is proving simply irresistible to the brides and grooms of tomorrow."

Mr Russell, who has nearly a quarter century of experience in running the hotel under personal supervision and private ownership, added: "We are particularly focussed on offering truly wonderful and accessible packaged pricing, with really great value, albeit we also have a significant proportion of our clients who have an unrestricted budget. In all we do we are constantly striving to remain ahead of the curve.

"With our brigade now comprising of 115 individuals, Balbirnie House is without doubt one of the UK's most celebrated and talked-about destination privately-owned hotels. Over recent years we've struck a really great balance between on-going innovation and classic design introductions, with great, personal and friendly modern service, and quite outstanding food and beverage offerings."

The hotel - an 18^th Century Grade A Listed Georgian mansion and National treasure, - caters for 160 large weddings each year, and attracts couples from all over the world.