Mountain Grange

A working farm that became a house for fifteen

Mountain Grange was the Lagg of Drumuillie, built in the eighteenth century by Duncan Grant, a stonemason turned farmer. His son Alexander took the farm on in 1944, ran Aberdeen Angus cattle here for 47 years, and retired in 1991. It is a lodge now, sleeping fifteen in four bedrooms, and it goes to one group at a time. The same operator runs Big Husky Lodge at Boat of Garten, which sleeps twenty-five.

Three of those bedrooms have en-suites: a super king master, a super king in the baroque room with its feature stone wall, and a king in the shabby chic room that looks across the gardens to the Cairngorms. The fourth is the rustic family room, with a bespoke super king and single adult bunk beds, its own entrance and its own ground floor bathroom, so the people in it can come and go without crossing the rest of the house.

The part that gets booked is outside. There is a seven person hot tub, a Scandinavian sauna, a bespoke wilderness shower for afterwards and a large fire pit. Indoors there are three wood burning stoves, an eight person leather sofa that pulls down into a double, and a family room with a gin bar, a smart TV and a PlayStation in it.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Drumuillie is a hamlet on the A95 between Boat of Garten and Grantown on Spey, which puts the lodge on the quieter, north eastern side of the Cairngorms rather than in Aviemore itself. Boat of Garten is the next village back down the road, with the James Braid golf course and a station on the Strathspey Railway, whose steam trains run between Aviemore and Broomhill.

Loch Garten and its osprey hide are close, and the operator counts eight golf courses within reach. Loch Morlich, with a beach 300 metres above sea level, has sailing, windsurfing, paddleboarding and kayaking off it, and Loch an Eilein has the ruined castle and the loop walk round it. Speyside starts a few miles down the same road, so a day among the whisky distilleries is easy from here.