From a beachside bothy to a Highland bunkhouse and lochside inn, here are some of Scotland’s bonniest boltholes
With its cheery, cherry-red tin roof, you can’t miss the sturdy stone bothy on the Ben Damph estate. The family-owned 5,868-hectare (14,500-acre) estate nudges up to Loch Torridon, and the bothy, constructed from the ruins of an old black house (a traditional thatched home), has views over the loch to the mountains beyond. Restored by a team of stonemasons, it has two rooms (each sleeping two) warmed by log burners. The furniture has been made from the estate’s timber by a local cabinet maker. Between the two rooms is a “sitooterie” with picture windows framing views over to Ben Alligin. There’s no electricity, but there is running water and a gas-powered hot shower next to the bothy; a compost loo is in the garden.
Sleeps 4, from £342.50 for two nights, bendamph.com
Squirrelled away among the trees on the banks of the River Spey and on the edge of Aviemore, the Cairngorms’ outdoor activity capital, the Old Bridge Inn is a gastropub with a handful of hip hostel rooms. The dogs-under-the-table inn has a roaring fire and is famous for its folk music sessions. By the riverside beer garden, paddle boarders, canoeists, wild swimmers and anglers make their way on to and into the river; while for climbers, hikers and mountain bikers, the forests and hills of the Rothiemurchus estate are on the doorstep. The bunkhouse has a vintage chic vibe, with seven en suite rooms and dorms and a kitchen – although if you don’t fancy cooking, head next door to the pub and tuck into Strathspey venison samosas with carrot and cumin sauce and roast hispi cabbage.
