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.
Dorm beds from £30, double rooms from £85, family rooms from £95, oldbridgeinn.co.uk
Not much can match Glen Coe for jaw-dropping grandeur. This majestic glen is hemmed in on one side by the jagged peaks of the challenging Aonach Eagach ridge, and to the south, the buttresses of Bidean nam Bian. In 1692, one of the most infamous massacres in history took place here, government forces slaying the MacDonald clan as they slept. Today, it’s a giant outdoor playground, its bleak beauty drawing Munro-baggers, hikers and mountain-bikers. The West Highland Way also passes through the glen, with walkers bedding down in Kingshouse hotel and bunkhouse, a smart wooden hostel with charcoal-grey tin roof. The hotel’s glass-fronted restaurant gives panoramic views of the valley.
From £44 for a bunk, £54 for a bunk and breakfast, kingshousehotel.co.uk
Anyone who binge-watched Banjo and Ro’s Grand Island Hotel will know how picturesque the little community-owned, car-free Hebridean island-off-an-island of Ulva is. A short boat ride from Mull, it’s just 7½ miles long by 2½ miles wide. A 5-mile tramp from the pier (next to the excellent Boathouse restaurant) through dappled woodland and along a coastal track, brings you to Bearnus bothy. Perched above a beach where you can go swimming, this little off-grid cottage has been thoughtfully kitted out by Andy and Yvette Primrose, who also run the island’s hostel. Battery-operated fairy lights are strung around the bathroom – fill the old tin bath with water heated on the wood-burning stove. There are games, stacks of novels, guidebooks and maps, and Crocs and wellies to borrow for island yomps.
Sleeps 2, from £121 for a two-night stay, airbnb.co.uk
Charlie Haddock fell in love with the Stein Inn on her way to the Outer Hebrides years ago. In 2019, she packed up her life in London and moved her family to the remote Waternish peninsula to run this whitewashed waterfront hostelry dating from 1790, the oldest inn on Skye. Charlie works front of house and in the kitchen, preparing the langoustine, lobster and crab landed just a few feet from the door (her son and daughter help out in the holidays). The five rooms, all with sea views, were spruced up in 2024 with dove grey tongue and groove, burnt orange headboards and modern artworks.
From about £80 B&B, thesteininn.co.uk
Originally a timber-clad boathouse and stables, the old-school Loch Ossian hostel was built around 1895 on the eponymous loch’s shores by Sir John Stirling Maxwell, the owner of the Corrour estate. A passionate environmentalist, in 1931 he handed the building over to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association. Today, the ivy-green and white-trimmed award-winning eco-hostel, hunkered into the windswept wilderness of Rannoch Moor, is powered by a wind turbine and solar panels. It has compost toilets, a reed bed grey-water drainage system and non-toxic, bat-friendly paint. There is no access by car; catch the train to Corrour station then hike (20 minutes) or bike in.
Beds from £25 a night, hostellingscotland.org.uk
Sipping your morning coffee in the sleek wooden extension of the Kylesku hotel, a 19th-century coaching inn in the north-west Highlands, you can watch the fishers unload their catch on the slipway through picture windows. Right on the water’s edge, overlooking Loch Glendhu, this gourmet bolthole on the North Coast 500 route has 11 rooms – four in the modern annexe, Willie’s Hoose, next door; two with a sea loch-facing balcony. The rugged Assynt landscape is a Unesco-designated geopark, and the hotel offers a range of activities, from guided storytelling walks to sea kayaking and photography workshops.
From about £109 B&B, highlandcoasthotels.com
A derelict croft was the first property to be turned into an off-grid, hillside hideaway on the Lochnell estate. It is lit by hurricane lamps, and outside there’s a wood-fired, sycamore-shaded, hose-filled vintage bath with views over the bay. Now, the Croft Collective’s next batch of bothies is about to be completed. Three architect-designed boltholes, named after birds you can spot along the shoreline – oystercatcher, curlew, kittiwake – will open in June. Just a pebble’s throw from the beach, wide-angled views over the Lynn of Lorne to the Isle of Mull in the west, and the Ardnamurchan hills and the mountains of Morvern, are framed by vast windows. Each bothy has a Japanese-style sunken bath, also with dreamy sea views, hammocks, and binoculars to scour the bay for seals, otters and eagles wheeling above.
From about £220 a night, thecroftcollective.com
On the shore of Loch Carron, Plockton is a 19th-century conservation village that’s picture-postcard pretty, with yachts bobbing in the bay and palm trees fringing the waterfront. The Plockton Inn has recently had a jaunty revamp – blowsily colourful rooms with floral feature walls, crimson chairs and navy paintwork are split between the old inn, Sorley’s House over the road and The Haven next door. After a day spent visiting nearby attractions such as Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most photographed in Scotland, tuck into creel-caught langoustine or “Plockton prawns” landed on the pier.
From about £170 B&B, highlandcoasthotels.com
Watch the sunset from your bed in this cute cabin by working coastal croft Croft 10. The smallholding is grazed by a flock of Hebridean sheep, the ground scratched by hens (farm-fresh eggs for breakfast). The wooden cabin faces west for spectacular sunsets and an ever-shifting seascape. Scour the water for whales and dolphins, and the sky for birds of prey soaring above Broad Bay. Just under 8 miles from Stornoway on the remote Hebridean isle of Lewis, it’s walking distance to the restored Shulishader Steps. Clamber down to the cove, a wild swimming spot, for a dip. Or head out along the recently completed coastal path, the Point and Sandwick Trail.
Sleeps 2, from £120 a night , hostunusual.com
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