Scottish spa treatment: The Shore Clinic, Edinburgh

You are sure to be relaxed after a couple's massage at The Shore Clinic, Edinburgh
Picture: Getty Images/iStockphotoPicture: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The treatment

A 60 minute couple’s massage at The Shore Clinic, Edinburgh. Prices start from £40pp for a regular 60 minute massage, £50pp for the 60 minute back massage and facial treatment (our choice), or £65 for a 90 minute full body massage and facial.

Why go?

Because you live in Leith and don’t want to trundle into the city centre to get a massage. Also, perhaps because it’s slightly off the beaten path, this place is cheaper than your average beauty spa.

Our spy says

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According to Kate and Magda, who own this clinic, the couple massage is their most popular offering, and they’re often visited by mothers and daughters, buddies and partners. I have my wee sister in tow, and we drive around for a bit before tracking down this unassuming salon, which turns out to be right next door to Sofi’s bar.

It’s a small premises, with a reception area behind frosted windows, yet they’re one of the few places in Edinburgh to have a treatment room that’s big enough to fit a pair of treatment tables, which are arranged in a sort of V formation.

My sister and I get ready and hop up. We wait for a couple of minutes, giggling and trying to preserve our modesty underneath the small brown towels, then Kate comes in the room and up to the end of my table, Magda over to my sis.

Handily, the forms we filled in during the consultation featured diagrams of a body, on which you can circle areas of concern. I highlighted my shoulders and right hip, and wonder if Kate will remember. She does.

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Using oodles of grapeseed oil, she concentrates on these areas, as well as the rest of my back, working into my gammy shoulders and crotchety scapula.

Hot stones are incorporated into the therapy and feel wonderful when smoothed onto my lower back.

When we turn over in sync, it’s facial time, and skin is gently cleansed, then mopped with hot towels. I don’t recognise the brand of product they’re using in the salon, but the smells and textures are all pleasant enough. I’m exfoliated, then very hot towels are put on my face while Kate massages my arms and hands.

I hope that my pores will be suitably purged and, when these towels have cooled and are removed, there’s a final facial massage and application of moisturiser.

The results

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This neighbourhood clinic is great, though it’s at the wrong end of town for me. I can tell my sister is going to be a regular though. “When are we going back?” she asks.

• Shore Clinic, 59 Henderson Street, Edinburgh (07964 577083, www.theshoreclinic.co.uk)

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