Our Story
Founded 2019
Dusk Hill was conceived on a December evening in 2016, when architects Liisa and Tõnis Valk stood on this hill at dusk and watched the sky turn from amber to violet above the pines. They had been searching for a site for two years. They stopped searching that evening.
Construction began in spring 2018 using reclaimed timber from a 19th-century barn in Läänemaa, local Paekivi limestone, and materials sourced entirely within Estonia where possible. The architects insisted on building with the forest rather than in spite of it — no trees were felled that had not already fallen.
The hotel opened on 1 June 2019 with eight rooms. Four more were added in 2022. We have no plans to grow further. Twelve rooms is the right size for the place to remain itself.
Dusk Hill is a member of Relais & Châteaux and Small Luxury Hotels of the World. It has been listed in Condé Nast Traveller's Hot List three years running. We are grateful for every mention, and more grateful still for every guest who returns.
The People
Liisa Valk
Co-Founder & General Manager
Former restoration architect. Designed every room at Dusk Hill and oversees the guest experience with a belief that comfort and austerity are not opposites.
Kristiina Ott
Head Chef
Trained at Noma Copenhagen and Ribe Tallinn. Returned to Estonian countryside cooking in 2018. Believes the best ingredient is always the one you weren't expecting.
Moonika Tamm
Naturalist & Experience Lead
Biologist and certified forest therapy guide. Has walked every metre of the surrounding forest. Knows which mushrooms are edible, which are not, and which are simply beautiful.
What We Believe
Slowness
We have no spa menu, no activity schedule, no checkout time anxiety. Guests leave when they are ready.
Locality
Every ingredient, every material, every craftsperson is Estonian. We are not a hotel that could be anywhere.
Restraint
Twelve rooms. One restaurant. No spa. Doing fewer things better is a design principle, not a limitation.
Stewardship
We plant five trees for each guest stay. The forest we found us in should outlast us by centuries.