From the old Highland glamour of the historic Aldourie Castle to the internationally significant Braeroy estate, Wildland West & Ness is chock full of stories to tell and secrets waiting to be revealed. Wildland is proud to count these two historic properties among its charge.
Aldourie Castle & Estate
A beautiful and historic fairy-tale property and the only habitable castle on Loch Ness. Set in a prime position on the south shoreline, Aldourie offers old baronial luxury for Wildland’s most discerning guests. This historic castle is only available for exclusive use but it can be booked for the minimum two days, a week, or for as long as you might wish to stay. Whether it’s just for two or for a group of up to twenty six, a corporate team or friends wanting somewhere special to escape to together, the castle is the perfect base.
Aldourie is ideally situated for some of Scotland’s very best golf courses, or for traditional stalking, shooting or fishing breaks. And it is of course also one of Scotland’s most exquisite wedding venues. There are quaint holiday cottages hidden away in the grounds and when the entirety of the estate is booked, up to fifty guests can be accommodated at one time. Wildland has also acquired the Dochfour and Laggan beats on the River Ness, offering fantastic salmon fishing throughout the season.
The chef at Aldourie is Michelin trained and expert at creating traditional Scottish cuisine using seasonal and local ingredients.
The estate has benefited from a multi-million pound restoration project encompassing not just the fabric of the main building but renovating and enhancing beautiful landscapes, which have been designed and re-sculpted across generations and creating a classically styled parterre and walled garden. From mid-October 2018, Aldourie will shut for 18 months for the construction of a top quality guest and commercial kitchen, a bastion and suspension bridge linking the castle to the restored arboretum and the renovation of the classic Italianate steading into amazing new facilities. During this period (October 2018 – March 2020) the previously wholly private Glenfeshie Lodge in our Wildland Cairngorm Estate will be playing a worthy substitute role.
Braeroy, Lochaber
Part of Scotland’s Northwest Geo Park, the Braeroy is visually beautiful. The River Roy offers classic spate river fishing. There are waterfalls and ancient single-span humpback bridges (probably designed and built by Caulfield) that served the old Highlands Military Highway and which winds still through ever more lonely stretches of the Corrieyairack and Braeroy forests towards Dalwhinnie.
Although virtually empty today and despite clearances carried out by the Mackintoshes in the 19th century (and later voluntary departures as the communities become gradually less and less sustainable), Glen Roy remained one of the mainland’s last Gaelic speaking communities on into the 1950s/60s. Beyond Braeroy Lodge lies Bohuntine, a small township of about five or six traditional croft houses, which is the last survival of a collective farm created for crofters when the Glen was cleared – a rare unspoilt group of vernacular buildings (some tin-roofed, some derelict, a few recently improved) which provides a wonderful glimpse of what once was and that which once again can be…
The estate has been designated a National Nature Reserve to prevent the Glen either being afforested or being dammed. Further up the Glen is the remote Luib-Chonna bothy which is managed by the MBA and provides a launch point to walk on remote Corbetts (Beinn Iaruinn, and three separate but adjacent hills call called Carn Dearg), or approach the famous Munro Creag Meaghaidh from the north.
The famous ‘parallel roads’ which are seen all around Glen Roy are a remarkable phenomena, as famous for the theories propounded about their origins as they are for their spectacle. In the early 19th century many natural scientists – including both Lyell and Babbage – visited and put forward theories as to how they were formed. Famously Charles Darwin offered his own altogether incorrect theory, but later recanted, stating: “A nice mess I made of Glen Roy … my paper was one long gigantic blunder from beginning to end.”