A secluded Scottish hideaway on the banks of Cally Loch
Navigating the Atholl family tree to understand where the mighty Scottish estate has arrived at in the present day is a complicated business. The twists and turns of history have seen the title, castle and vast tracts of land criss-cross through different strands of the family – always in search of a male heir. When the 10th Duke of Atholl died in 1996, the title passed to a cousin in South Africa, who preferred to stay put rather than start a new life in Scotland. The estate – much of it safeguarded in a charitable trust – remained in the capable hands of Sarah Troughton, the 10th Duke’s half-sister, and has subsequently passed to her three children, of whom Claire Spencer-Churchill is one.
While the estate’s central magnet is the magnificent Blair Castle, the land stretching south to the picturesque village of Dunkeld, on the banks of the River Tay, falls under Claire’s remit. It is here that she has recently opened Glen Glack, a handful of high-end cabins overlooking Cally Loch, a mile or so up a heavily wooded track from the village.
The project is quite a departure from Claire’s working life running fashion trade shows in Paris, but, as she says, Glen Glack is a magical spot. ‘There’s so much to do here – hiking, fishing, shooting, archery, horse-riding, golf – and Dunkeld is so popular,’ she adds of the village recently named the best place to live in Scotland by The Sunday Times.
We discuss the pros and cons of cabin life, sharing a love of being fully immersed in nature but bemoaning the fact that the rapid expansion of treehouses, shepherd’s huts and lodges across the UK has often veered towards the formulaic. Mercifully, the Glen Glack cabins are the antithesis of this. They have been designed with enormous care by Dunblane-based architect Alastair Forbes, built by the Glaswegian firm Bridgewater and fitted out on the inside by London-based interior design studio Turner Pocock. ‘They were the dream team,’ says Claire. ‘I loved working with them all.’
Of the five cabins – each named after a native tree – four sleep four people, with the fifth, Juniper, sleeping two, clearly with honeymooners in mind, who might want to double up in the outside bath. All have tin roofs and wood-clad exteriors stained black, grey or red – ‘very much Atholl colours’, explains Claire. Their super-smart interiors are decorated in a palette inspired by the landscape – heathery pinks, fresh greens, teal blues – and, outside, wide decks are furnished with sheepskin-clad Adirondack-style chairs in which to ruminate on the ever-changeable Scottish weather.
Inevitably, the immediate surrounds are still a little scarred following the transition from commercial forestry to loch-side beauty spot. But this will soften, and a programme of further development (a jetty, a boat, a swimming deck and perhaps a sauna) will enhance the offering. Also, an ongoing project to plant native trees, grasses, ferns and wildflowers will play into the huge regenerative plans of the estate as a whole.
Claire and I set off by Land Rover up the long, stony track beyond the cabins, where civilisation all but peters out, save for a handful of remote farmhouses, some near-derelict, which she has designs on for the future. We pass three silver-grey, wind-whipped lochs, pausing at the last to push out a rowing boat, rods in hand. ‘We always used to fish here as children,’ Claire tells me, as my own memories of childhood summers spent fishing in Scotland seep back through my fingertips. A 2lb rainbow trout is my reward.
Alas, there is no time to explore the endless labyrinth of trails, but I have idea enough of Glen Glack’s doorstep play-ground to understand the allure of this wilderness. I am drawn instead first to Dunkeld for a shallow dive into its history: the sombre, riverside cathedral, part-ruin, part-parish church; the collection of whitewashed Georgian houses restored by the National Trust for Scotland; the assortment of attractive shops including that of local jam-maker Palmerston’s, where the bramble and gooseberry jam proves irresistible. Then, onwards, 30 minutes north to
Blair Castle and the far reaches of the Atholl estate, which drift into the dramatic scenery of the Highlands.
I am captivated by it all, but perhaps by no single aspect more than the castle’s exquisite nine-acre Hercules Garden, contained within ancient granite walls and presided over by a life-sized 18th-century statue of the Roman god. Claire, who was married in the garden in 2011, describes how her mother, ‘a passionate gardener’, oversaw the decades-long restoration of the garden after the death of the 10th Duke, ably assisted by a workforce from nearby Perth prison. For a moment, when I stand there, the sun casts a golden glow over the fruit trees, flower borders, ponds and bridges. And then the heavens open. This is Scotland after all.
Atholl Estates, Blair Atholl, Perthshire (atholl-estates.co.uk) offers a one-night stay in a one-bedroom woodland cabin from £175 and one night in a two-bedroom luxury eco cabin from £200.
