The hotel has many special characteristics with its ornate cornicing, original fireplaces and impressive Kauri timber panelling. The Kauri in itself is special in that it is now almost extinct and features in very few buildings throughout the UK. It is said that the timbers found there way to the hotel, during its design and build by Alexander “Greek” Thomson, from a New Zealand ship which was wrecked on the Solway coast in the late eighteen hundreds.