Recover from the Festival with a massage at The Scotsman hotel spa

It's exhausting running around the Edinburgh Festival. What's tiring about sitting on your bahookie in shows and mainlining caffeine en route between venues, you ask? Well, quite a lot actually. Shin splints, no time to moisturise, no time to sleep, back and neck pain, stress… you name it.

At The Scotsman Hotel's spa they've come up with a treatment, Keep on Walking, to combat all that and deliver you back out on to the street, revived and ready to go all over again. It also gives you the chance to lie down for an hour in peace, which in Edinburgh during August is not to be taken lightly.

Kirsty, my therapist begins by asking me some questions. No, not about what shows I've been seeing, but about my skin. Dry, dry, dry, in a nutshell. She selects some Thalgo therapies, a range of marine products that harness all the minerals and plant extracts in the sea, and begins with a back and shoulder massage using a relaxing aromatherapy essential oil. I've asked for my massage to be firm and Kirsty expertly works through the knots and up and down my spine, applying just the right amount of pressure.

Afterwards I turn over on to my back and Kirsty gives me a luxurious facial. She begins by spraying Reviving Marine Mist over my face and neck and then using tiny cleansing brushes that feel as soft as feathers, she works cleansing milk and toner into my skin. After rubbing off the excess with fragrant hot towels she applies an exfoliator and then an oxygen mask to rehydrate my tired skin that's seen one too many damp Fringe venues of late. While the mask does its work Kirsty turns to my tired, old feet and massages them with the aromatherapy oil.

Kirsty removes the mask, again with hot towels and applies rich eye cream, massaging the hollows of my eyes as she does so, which feels wonderfully soothing and afterwards makes me much less dry-eyed. Finally, she brushes energising vitality cream into my skin, which now feels dewy and supple and completely different to how it was when I walked in.

Kirsty takes me to the relaxation room, swaddles me in a duvet and brings me a copy of Elle. After two cups of cranberry herbal tea and a couple more magazines I drag myself out from under the covers and get dressed. Back on the street I walk taller, my shoulders drop, and my skin glows as I charge off in the direction of my next show.

chitra ramaswamy

Keep on Walking at The Scotsman Spa, 1 Market Street, Edinburgh (0131-622 3800, www.scotsmanspa.com) Available until the end of the Edinburgh Festival (Sunday 5 September).

This article was first published in The Scotsman on Saturday, August 28