Carn Cottage

A bathroom for every bedroom

The thing that separates Carn Cottage from other cottages of its size is the plumbing. Three bedrooms sit on the first floor and each has its own en suite. The fourth is a double on the ground floor and it has one too. There is a separate toilet downstairs on top of that, so seven people share four bathrooms and nobody waits on a landing at eight in the morning.

Downstairs is open plan, with the wood burner at the middle of it and patio doors onto the garden. The kitchen has an electric oven and hob, a microwave, a fridge freezer, and a dishwasher, and the washing machine is out of the way in a utility room. Bed linen and towels are provided, and the rate covers electricity, the oil central heating, and the fuel for the stove, which is worth knowing in a house this size in February.

The garden wraps around the cottage, with decking and a barbecue at the rear and a sitting out area in the enclosed part. Parking on site takes four cars, which matters when the beds suit two families.

The four bedrooms

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Farr Estate is roughly 12,000 acres, running from Tomatin in the south to the edge of Loch Ness in the north, and the cottage sits inside it rather than beside it. That is part of what you book: biking and hiking routes over woodland and moor, fly fishing for brown trout from a boat on the estate loch, and a boathouse with kayaks and paddleboards.

The minor road at the end of the garden reaches the A9 in one direction and the Loch Ness road in the other, with the Cairngorms beyond. The estate reckons 20 minutes into Inverness and half an hour to the airport, so this is rural without being cut off. Guests can borrow the estate's bikes, four of them electric, and our cycling guide covers where else is worth the effort.