Strathspey Lodge

A house arranged so a group can spread out

Strathspey Lodge is built over three floors around one central room, a combined kitchen, dining and living space with the wood burner in it. Everybody eats and sits in one place, and the floors above and below give people somewhere to go when they want out of it. There is a library as well, and a balcony that looks south over open country towards the Cairngorm range.

The four bedrooms are three doubles, including the master suite, and a twin, with four bathrooms between them. Every bedroom has a wall mounted TV and a Roberts DAB radio, and the living area has a full Sky package on a Bose sound system. The nursery is what separates this from most houses of the size: a stocked room for small children to sleep and play in, alongside a table tennis table and a shelf of board games.

Dogs are welcome and the garden is large and enclosed, which is rarer in the area than it sounds. A welcome pack waits on arrival, with Prosecco, local beer, and hot chocolate and marshmallows for the children.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Duthil sits on the quiet side of the Cairngorms National Park, between Carrbridge and Grantown on Spey, so you are inside the park without being in Aviemore. Carrbridge is two miles down the road, with the packhorse bridge, the Cairn Hotel and an eighteen hole golf course.

The owners point walkers at the Craigellachie Nature Reserve and Loch Morlich, and skiers at Cairn Gorm, with the Lecht about forty minutes away over the Slochd and across to Strathdon. Rothiemurchus, Loch an Eilein and the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd are all within the same half hour, and Speyside starts a few miles east, so a day among the whisky distilleries is straightforward from here.