WHAT YOU DO HERE
Nothing is scheduled. Everything is arranged.
There is no activity programme and no clipboard. There is a stalker who will take you out, a sauna you book on a slate by the door, and eleven miles of drove road that does not require booking at all.
Turn the day round.
Pick a month, drag the hand, and the estate answers: what the light is doing, whether the midges are up, and which of these are genuinely on at that hour. Solved for 56.8412°N, which is why midsummer has nowhere to put the stars.
- DAYLIGHT
- CIVIL TWILIGHT
- NAUTICAL
- ASTRONOMICAL
- PROPER DARK
- MIDGES BITING
- SUNRISE
- 03:20
- SUNSET
- 20:40
- PROPER DARK
- none at all
- MIDGES
- bad — stay moving
- WILD SWIMMING
The tarn, 240 m. Coldest in May at about 9°C, warmest late August at maybe 15. There is a changing hut and a hook for a robe.
- THE SAUNA
Wood-fired cedar, seats six, looks north over the tarn. Forty minutes to come up to heat, so light it before you swim, not after.
- READING BY THE STOVE
Always available, and on a wet February afternoon it is not the consolation prize, it is the whole holiday.
NOT AT THIS HOURWALKING THE DROVE ROADTHE CORRIE AND THE RIDGESTARGAZINGTHE AURORA WATCHTHE RUTBREAKFAST IN THE PORCH
WALKING
ALL YEAR
Four marked routes off the estate, from a flat mile along the drove road to a five-hour round of the corrie and the ridge. Maps in every unit, and a whiteboard in the porch of the farmhouse with what the hill is doing that day.
BEST APRIL–JUNE AND SEPTEMBER
WILD SWIMMING
THE TARN · 240 M
Deep enough to swim from the jetty, and the far rock is about a hundred and forty metres out. Coldest in May at around 9°C, warmest in late August at maybe 15. There is a changing hut and a hook for a robe, and the sauna is a three-minute walk away, which is not a coincidence.
NEVER SWIM ALONE · A FLOAT HANGS IN THE HUT
THE SAUNA
130 M · £30 AN HOUR
Wood-fired, cedar, seats six, looks north over the tarn. Book the hour on the slate by the door; it takes about forty minutes to come up to temperature so light it before you swim, not after.
FIRE LAID · LOGS UNDER THE BENCH
STARGAZING
OCTOBER TO MARCH
There is no meaningful light pollution here. On a clear moonless night the Milky Way is a band, not a rumour, and the Larch Dome exists largely so you can watch it from bed. Give your eyes forty minutes and do not look at a phone.
AURORA, PERHAPS FOUR NIGHTS A YEAR
THE RUT
LATE SEPTEMBER TO OCTOBER
Red deer in the corrie, and you will hear them from Hind’s Rest whether you go looking or not. Callum takes small groups up on foot at first light — two hours, no rifle, and he will tell you where to stand so you do not ruin it.
£40 A HEAD · MAXIMUM FOUR
FISHING & FORAGING
BY ARRANGEMENT
Brown trout in the outflow, catch and release, rods in the bothy. Chanterelles in the birch wood from late July if it has been wet. We will show you what is worth picking and, more usefully, what is not.
PERMIT INCLUDED FOR THE ESTATE WATER
Pick a month and a door.
Most of this is better in September than in July, and we will say so.