by What do Sir Richard Branson’s sister Vanessa, Danish billionaire and ASOS retail tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen, and broadcaster Kirsty Young have in common? Oddly enough, the unlikely trio are all invested in transforming Scotland for holidaymakers and keen to better connect you with the Highlands.
Boss na Maighdine’s younger sibling is the custodian of Eilean Shona, a car-free island of nine abandoned shacks turned into renovated holiday rentals on tidal Loch Muideart. In addition, it is where Kate Winslet and her children return every year (she chooses Tioram Cottage, overlooking a bay full of mussels).
Povlsen, meanwhile, is Scotland’s richest man and largest private landowner, with 13 Highland estates in his Wildland portfolio. The park is all about giving the popular holidaymakers fantastic holidays on reforested, community-oriented land – “a mission to make an active and meaningful contribution to the rebirth of Scotland’s living landscapes,” says Anders and his wife Anne – and they have gathered a cheer. of five-star pads you can rent to stimulate this assumed regeneration.
In Sutherland, these include Strathmore Lodge, Lundies House and Kyle House as well as Glenfeshie Lodge and Kilkenny Farmhouse and Cottages in Cairngorm National Park. The 400-year-old Aldourie Castle on Loch Ness tops the price list. The 500-acre, exclusive-use estate will accommodate a party of 24 for around £24,000 for two nights.
And now, as of last week, Kirsty Young and her husband Nick Jones, the founder of Soho House, have been granted planning permission to build a luxury log lodge on the long-vacant Inchonchan Island in Loch Lomond in the Troas National Park. . They bought the island for £1.6 million in 2020 and, despite opposition from campaigners including Chris Packham and The Woodland Trust, the celebrity couple’s vision has been rubber-stamped.
One day in the future, in addition to the holiday accommodation, a caretaker’s house, a boathouse and a pier could be added to the 103-acre island, which has been abandoned for the past twenty years. Or almost abandoned – for as long as anyone can remember, its inhabitants have included a population of red-necked wallabies, introduced in the 1940s.
Is this the kind of lateral thinking that Highlands tourism needs more of to change sustainably, rather than putting more boots in the mud? If you ask me, maybe yes. Few would argue that tourism has not made a significant contribution to the life of the Gaeltacht in recent years – it helps to sustain communities, creates jobs and attracts investment. And, crucially, for better or worse, the sector is growing rapidly.
“Outland tourism is a 365-day-a-year industry – and one of the most important in Scotland,” said Chris Taylor, director of destination development for Visit Scotland, the national tourism organisation. “In fact, a survey of Scottish residents identified as the Most important. Our scenery and landscape are among the things that make Scotland so special, but we all have a duty of care to preserve these natural assets for future generations.”
These days, the booming influence of tourism can be seen everywhere in the Lowlands. According to Visit Scotland, pre-Covid figures for the region show 2.9 million overnight visits and a total spend of £1.6 billion, while 2023 statistics from the recent International Passenger Survey showed visits to the country and spend greatly exceeded in 2022 and front passengers alike. levels. In addition, Highlands and Islands Enterprise reported last year that tourism jobs represent up to 43 per cent of the workforce in some areas.
Conversely, however, the Highland Council’s economy and infrastructure committee recently reported increased visitor pressure on major Highland sites: there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of motorhomes in North West Sutherland, the Isle of Skye and east of Loch Abar in 12 months from 2021; Campsites in Durness, Asainte, Arrasaig and Gleneite have seen the number of visitors; The litter problem in Loch Ness is growing; and outdoor toilet violations have increased by a third. Many others are facing these concerns – filing them under the good, the very bad, the unsafe.
Arguably, the move to finer enterprises is welcome and an increase in innovative thinking – particularly at a local, public participation level – is needed to support the communities most dependent on it. on tourism. Happily, the past year has been full of positive examples of affordable inclusivity.
My favorite new opening this year is The Treehouses at Leckie, just over the Highland Border in West Stirlingshire. The Scandi-smart design is as exciting as any country effort, opening up a rural nook that few would have visited before. Here, the secret is nature as God intended it in the company of red squirrels and deer, and your vacation is seen through the filter of four eco-friendly luxury cabins on stilts.
Croft 103 in Durness is almost a mirror in terms of meaning rather than location. Although nothing new, it raised eyebrows more than a dozen years ago when it unveiled two self-catering, carbon-negative cottages with outdoor baths overlooking Lough Eriboll. And that was four years before the creation of the North Coast 500 scenic route which began to affect this normally romantic part of the Highlands.
Another wonderful arrival this year is the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre, which opened in May 2023 in Glenmorrisdon as the world’s first rewilding centre. He makes everyone’s world bigger, whether he’s stopping on the road from Inverness to Skye, or while staying at An Spiris, his 20-bed accommodation camp for volunteers in a reforested nursery. The valley provides an escape and a connection to the community, but it also gives notice, in an existential way, that this is a delicate ecosystem in need of protection and respect. You only need to see the ark’s worth of birds, birds and insects in action to start thinking about how to holiday differently in the future.
Or how about the new Gateway to Nature Center at Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve near Ullapool? The work he does understands the global appeal of the Highlands landscape – the need to reward nature by gently opening it up to visitors – but does so in a sensitive, low-impact way.
To stay nearby, the Dipping Lugger is a thoughtful three-bed restaurant with rooms in a restored harborside manse now serving langoustines caught in cages ashore meters away. Talk about the holy trinity.
So bring yourself to Inchonchan Island. Give us another Happy Island. One more Dundreggan, if you don’t mind too much, thank you very much. Although new ideas and places may seem intimidating, they can change mindsets and shake off what has gone before. Tourism is a great teacher, if you ask me – and it’s never too late to start learning.
