Great North Lodges - Beaver Creek Lodge

A log cabin for eight, in the woods but still walkable to Aviemore

Beaver Creek Lodge is a three-bedroom log cabin in birch woodland at the back of Aviemore, reached across its own wooden bridge. There is a stile at the end of the garden that puts you straight into Craigellachie National Nature Reserve, where the paths climb through the birches to viewpoints over the village and out to the Cairngorms.

The trick it pulls off is being genuinely tucked away without needing the car. Aviemore centre, with the shops, pubs and the station, is around seventeen minutes on foot, so an evening out does not have to involve driving.

It is well set up for a group coming in wet and cold. There is an eight-person hot tub under the eaves of the lodge, so it stays usable in the rain, a private sauna in the main bathroom alongside a jacuzzi bath, and a wood burner with the logs supplied. The pergola built directly over the burn is the thing nobody expects, and on a warm evening it is where everyone ends up.

Good to know

Features

Location

The rooms

Three bedrooms and the lounge bed make eight, which suits two families sharing or a group of friends better than it suits eight adults who all want their own room.

The spa bathroom and the deck

Where it puts you

Craigellachie starts at the garden stile, which means a walk or a ride before breakfast without getting in the car. Everything else in the Cairngorms is a short drive: Loch an Eilein and the Rothiemurchus estate, Loch Morlich and its beach, the funicular at Cairngorm Mountain and the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig.

In winter this is a sensible ski base, close enough to the road up to the Cairngorm and Lecht slopes and with a sauna to come back to. The Aviemore page covers the village and the year round.