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 $574.

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 concierge at the hotel. "If guests are expecting a cozy 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 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 and 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 demeanor -- 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.