Wild for the Scottish Highlands

Senior editor Elizabeth Harvey recently spent two weeks scouting in the Scottish Highlands, where she got the first look at a highly anticipated conservation-focused lodge in the rugged far north—set on a staggering 100,000-acre estate—as well as the new “Secret Room” suite at an Indagare-adored countryside mansion with a museum-worthy private art collection (yes, that is a Picasso hanging in the library). Take a closer look inside these and other properties—and find out why now is the time to visit the Highlands—in her dispatch below.

“It’s a good day for eagles,” our ghillie remarked, as we wound our way up through the mountains of Invercauld Estate in the Fife Arms’ 4x4 Defender. The sky was bright and the air, breezy, with a soft layer of clouds that, in their shifting, revealed sudden bursts of sunshine that made the brown ripples of the River Dee sparkle and the yellow fields of gorse glow fiercely.

Most locals—the Fife Arms ghillie (Gaelic for “field guide”) included—will tell you that autumn is the best time to visit the Scottish Highlands. The height of summer is a close second, provided you avoid the tiny yet sharp-toothed midges. But I found that springtime—the end of April, to be specific—makes a very compelling argument, as well. Indeed, you have your best chances of spotting the golden and sea eagles—and ospreys, kites, grouse and, if you are incredibly lucky, the critically endangered, practically mythical Capercaillie. You also have the opportunity to revel in the full and ferocious glory of a land coming back to life—to witness slowly the cycle of rebirth that marks the end of winter, which has become a luxury in so many other places where the transition between seasons is now rushed.

In Scotland’s springtime, snowdrops and daffodils bloom in shy bunches along shaded, mossy creeks. Asparagus, wood garlic and rhubarb abound in a fleeting overwhelm of flavor. Buds appear quietly across the thickly heathered moors, promising a canvas of dramatic purple soon to sweep across the valleys. Lambs dot the meadows in downy white piles that pop against gleaming grass. Snow-topped mountains—among the most ancient on earth—surround sleepy villages that never left the pages of fairy tales, where sheep outnumber people and Highland cow traffic is accounted for in the daily timetable. The light—and the weather—change by the minute, and you learn quickly why the Scottish have more than 100 different words for rain (smirr, spindrift and pellin’ doon are a few favorites).

Scotland’s relative ease of access, laidback atmosphere and shared kinship with the United States make it an especially appealing destination for Americans right now, regardless of the season. The recent series finale of the fan-favorite television show Outlander is only augmenting its allure, with the same screen-driven wanderlust that sent viewers chasing Bridgerton’s English countryside, Yellowstone’s Big Sky, Montana and The White Lotus’s Sicily and Thailand. But where those destinations have inflated accordingly, the Highlands still feel like a discovery. It remains one of the least densely populated regions in the world, and it’s a place of surprising value relative to its other considerable merits: a diverse range of experiences, from world-class whisky and farm-to-table cuisine to golf, wellness and adventure amid awe-inspiring landscapes; a collection of memorable hotels, with some inspiring new openings; and mellow, wry locals who will graciously share a culture so layered with history and anecdote that every glen seems to come with its own clan feud, ghost story or royal rumor attached.

People like to say that the right books find you when you most need them, and I believe the same is true of trips. As the world gets louder and more uncertain, Scotland’s resilient yet nurturing wildness offers travelers a haven in which to reset the nervous system. It’s the same sanctuary that I seek out west and on safari. I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to look north; within twelve hours of landing in Scotland, I was bewildered and bothered that I hadn’t come sooner.

Over the course of two weeks, the Highlands’ spell was cast upon me by four unique properties tucked into four very different corners of the region: a storied, art-filled hotel in the Cairngorms; a slow-living country house above the River Tay; a fairy-tale castle on the banks of Loch Ness; and a newly opened wilderness lodge in the rugged far north. Each is as committed to hospitality as it is to protecting the pine forests, peat bogs, munros and streams that have beckoned me back ever since I departed. Get a closer look below.

Just a two-hour drive north from Edinburgh, The Fife Arms presents the perfect entrée into the Highlands, especially for the traveler (like myself) that enjoys a trimming of indulgence to accent immersion in nature. Built in 1856 as a coaching inn—where Queen Victoria would stop to change horses on her way to Balmoral Castle, nine miles down the road—the hotel gradually fell into disrepair with the passage of time. In 2014, art and hospitality power-couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth (of Hauser & Wirth and Artfarm renown) purchased it, hoping to restore and revive the landmark after falling in love with Braemar on their own travels... Continue reading here.

Where The Fife Arms dazzles with details and drama, Dun Aluinn soothes with Scandi-Scotch simplicity at the southern edge of the Highlands.

Set on a five-and-a-half-acre estate above the riverside town of Aberfeldy in Perthshire, looking down the Tay Valley toward Schiehallion Mountain, Dun Aluinn—pronounced “Dun Alan,” Gaelic for “beautiful hillside fort”—sits halfway between The Fife Arms and Edinburgh (an approximately two-hour drive from each, and 90 minutes from St Andrews). This Queen Anne-style home was built in 1909 by Sydney Mitchell & Wilson and served in turn as a private residence, 1920s country inn and boarding house for the local Breadalbane Academy—until 2017, when Irish hotelier and entrepreneur John Burke and his wife, designer Susie Whyte, acquired the property and embarked on a painstaking 18-month restoration, converting what was described to me as “a wreck” into an exclusive-use escape... Continue reading here.

The Highlands stretch over more than 10,000 square miles, or roughly one-third of Scotland’s total land area. The topography transforms from pastoral to untamed as you move north through the region. Two hours from Dun Aluinn—a route traversible by car or railway—brings travelers to Inverness, the capital of the Highlands and the gateway to the Great Glen rift valley and the islands, cliffs and beaches of Scotland’s northernmost edge.

Situated on a geological fault line, Inverness is fertile ground for folklore, from the hallowed Culloden Moors to the murky depths of Loch Ness itself. Here, fairies and monsters dance and skulk from dusk to dawn amid hills and castles that have also staged very real events of equal legend. Romantics and nostalgists are stirred to turn their imaginations loose along these fabled shores, perhaps because the magnetic forces of the planet are closer here, at this brooding rupture point in the earth’s crust. And after a long day of grappling with the cosmic and the supernatural, naturally, there is no better place to retire than one’s own medieval lochside castle... Continue reading here.

The Fife Arms, Dun Aluinn and Aldourie Castle are just a few among many estates in Scotland that fell from clan hands into disrepair and are now being restored and revived for the next generation through hospitality. Hope Lodge, the latest project from WildLand, is another.

I got a first look inside the property just a few weeks before it officially opened to the public in mid-May. A former hunting lodge dating back to 1867, Hope sits a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of Inverness, on a staggering 100,000-acre slice of the Povlsens’ holdings in coastal Sutherland—a rugged, raw world of icy lochs, dense peatlands, sea cliffs and snow-dusted munros. Renovating the estate—including a handful of cottages from the 1840s—required seven years of hard work and a multi-million-pound investment... Continue reading here.