Loch Ness Escapes - Balnacraig

The one in the woods, with walks from the door

Balnacraig is a farmhouse on the Dochfour Estate, set among trees and hills rather than on the shore, and that is the point of it. Forest and hill tracks leave from the property and connect to the Great Glen Way, so a morning walk here does not start with a drive, which is not true of the two lochside properties the same owners run.

It sleeps four in two king bedrooms with two bathrooms. The ground-floor bedroom has an en-suite and its own access to the garden, which is worth knowing if anyone in the party would rather not do stairs. Upstairs has a bath as well as a shower. The bedding is Egyptian cotton and it shows.

The sitting room has a wood burner and looks out over the glen; the kitchen diner is a proper one, with an induction hob, oven, dishwasher and a table for five, and there is a utility with a washing machine and tumble dryer. Outside the garden is fully fenced, with a fire pit, a dining terrace and the hot tub under its pagoda.

Good to know

Features

Location

Which of the three to book

Where it puts you

The Dochfour Estate sits on the ridge between Inverness and the top of Loch Ness, so both are within ten minutes and neither is on the doorstep. That is the compromise, and for walkers it is the right one, because the tracks from the farmhouse run into the woods and up onto the hill and eventually meet the Great Glen Way.

Boat trips leave from Dochgarroch Locks, five minutes down the hill, and the Caledonian Canal path runs from there towards Inverness. Urquhart Castle is around half an hour down the loch. Inverness has the restaurants and the airport, and the Loch Ness page covers the water itself.