Kilchuimen House

The newer and larger of the two Glendoe houses

Glendoe is a working Highland estate on the south shore of Loch Ness, and it lets two houses. Kilchuimen is the one that was built rather than restored, and its upper floor is laid out around the view instead of around a chimney. Lower Glendoe Cottage is the traditional house on the same ground and sleeps six.

The beds are the part worth settling before you book. All four bedrooms have a zip and link king that comes apart into two singles, so the house suits four couples and eight friends who would rather not share equally well. Two are downstairs, which matters if stairs are a problem.

The ground floor is otherwise one open room, the kitchen at one end and a double sided wood burner between the sofas and a table for eight. Upstairs is the thing the cottage has no version of: a second sitting area, and sliding doors onto a balcony walled in glass, the loch running away north in front of it.

Choosing between Kilchuimen and Lower Glendoe

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Fort Augustus is a short walk down the hill, where the Caledonian Canal steps down through its locks into Loch Ness. The village holds the shops, the pubs, the canal side benches, and the cruise jetties, so the first evening never needs the car.

North of the village the loch runs the whole way to Inverness, a day out for Culloden, the river, and dinner. Turn west off that road at Drumnadrochit and Glen Affric opens up, with Plodda Falls at the far end of it.