Jim Arnold MBE, has been New Lanark Conservation Trust's director, since its inception in 1974. Few can look back on a lifetime's work which has been so conspicuous a success.

The decision of the trust to go it alone and run the hotel, came, according to Arnold, after a consultancy firm failed to find any hotel operator interested in taking over its management.

''We felt that if we could run a visitor centre which attracted 400,000 visitors a year, then we could run a hotel,'' he says.

Work began on Mill One in 1993, and Jim Arnold puts the final cost at about #7m. Half of this has gone on the reconstruction of the building.

The project has been

multi-funded, with #1.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Lanarkshire Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund, Historic Scotland and a number of private foundations.

Great attention to detail has been paid in the creation of the new hotel.

The metal balustrades at stair and first floor level faithfully echo a design used in the school. Clever curtain design maximises the light and views, while emphasising the graceful lines of the windows; the simple wooden curtain restraints are copies of old cotton bobbins. Everywhere, the decor is elegant and pale, adding to the general ambience of peace.

Water houses a name to inspire the imagination. See them, and you'll fall in love.

A project in tandem with the hotel, the water houses at New Lanark are eight

self-catering terraced cottages, strung along the river bank. From their comfy interiors, you could believe you were on a boat.

The views up and down the river, across to the wooded banks, are spellbinding. How can this much tranquillity - and so few people around - possibly be the Central Belt? Amazingly, once, these delightful little houses were stores for the cotton which came along the river before it was hoisted to the top of the mills to be worked. Now, they are cosy little havens; seven offer two bedrooms, one a single bedroom. most are party-sized, and so are the bathrooms.

Well-fitted little kitchens allow you to prepare drinks and snacks or meals, although with the hotel literally on the doorstep, promising locally produced fare and the tempting delights of Scotland's larder, cooking may not be on everyone's agenda.

Each cottage has a living room with space for dining, and television is provided - though with those views, even that may be eschewed.

Weekly prices, depending on time of year, are expected to be around #250-#550.