THE SITE · LARCHFIELD
Everything you need to know before you turn off the road.
Larchfield is a working estate in Glen Larach, ninety acres of it, half an hour north of Oban. The last mile is a single track with passing places and it is worth taking slowly.
FROM GLASGOW
2 H 40
M8, A82 past Loch Lomond
FROM EDINBURGH
3 H 20
M9 then A82
FROM OBAN
35 MIN
A828 north, then the glen road
NEAREST STATION
BALLACHULISH
We will collect, with notice
Where everything is, to scale.
Bearing and distance from the car park to every door and every feature on the estate. This is the same plate we hand you at check-in.
the closest door to the car, and the whole sunset from it
Hover a mark, or arrow through them.How far it actually is.
The ground between the car park and each door, surveyed and drawn to one scale. Drag along it — the gradient under your feet is measured off the line, not written down.
- WALKED
- 20 m
- CLIMBED
- 0.7 m
- UNDER YOUR FEET
- 1 in 30
- SURFACE
- HARDCORE
- STILL TO GO
- 1 min
Level the whole way. A wheelbarrow does it.
THE PRACTICALITIES
The answers, in the order you will want them.
ARRIVAL
FROM 16:00
The gate code is sent the week before, along with a map and a photograph of the turning, which is easy to miss in the dark. If you are arriving after nine, tell us and we will leave a light on at the car park.
PARKING
ONE CAR PER UNIT
Hard standing for six cars beside the farmhouse. A second car can be parked on the verge by the gate. There is no vehicle access to any of the units — that is the point of the place.
ELECTRIC · ONE 7 KW POST, FIRST COME
GETTING TO YOUR DOOR
60 M TO 700 M
Everything is on foot from the car park, between one and eighteen minutes. Barrows are stacked by the gate and they are genuinely useful. If you have booked the Eyrie and would rather not carry your bag up, say so when you book and we will take it up on the quad.
CHECK OUT
BY 10:30
Leave the stove as you found it and the key on the hook. Late checkout to 13:00 when the unit is free the following night — ask the morning before, not the morning of.
ACCESSIBILITY
HONEST VERSION
The Long Lodge is the only unit we can call step-free: hard path from the car park, 60 m, no gradient worth the name, level threshold and a wet room. The Bothy and Hind’s Rest are reachable on grass with help. Tarn Cabin, the Larch Dome and the Eyrie all involve uneven ground and, in the Eyrie’s case, a real climb.
RING US AND WE WILL TELL YOU STRAIGHT
DOGS
FOUR OF SIX UNITS
Dogs are welcome in the Larch Dome, the Bothy, the Long Lodge and Hind’s Rest, at £12 a night. Not in Tarn Cabin or the Eyrie. There is stock on the estate from March, so leads past the low field and the meadow, always.
TOWELS AND A BOWL IN EVERY DOG UNIT
SIGNAL & WI-FI
PATCHY, DELIBERATELY
There is decent Wi-Fi in the farmhouse and at the Long Lodge. Everywhere else it is a bar of 4G if you stand in the right place, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Most people stop looking by the second morning.
FIRE & WOOD
INCLUDED
Every unit has a stove and a basket of birch, refilled daily. The fire pit is laid by four each afternoon. Do not burn anything you found in the wood; it is wet and it will smoke you out.
WATER & POWER
SPRING FED
Water comes off the hill, filtered and UV-treated, and it is the best you will drink. Power is mains to all six units. Hot water is unmetered — use it.
THE ESTATE
WORKING LAND
There is stock, there is stalking in season, and there are people at work. Keep to the marked paths, shut the gates behind you, and if you meet a vehicle on the track the vehicle is probably working.
Come and see it.
Six doors on ninety acres, and a stove lit before you arrive.