Ben Damph Estate has a lot to offer those who enjoy the outdoors. With 14,500 acres of land, it contains an awe-inspiring mixture of magnificent mountains and glens, sea lochs and inland lochs, with views constantly changing colour and mood.
Discover more about Walking and Climbing, Loch and Sea Fishing, Shooting , Wildlife and read about Nearby Villages and the Local History.
There are endless opportunities for walking at Ben Damph, from a pleasant leisurely stroll to an arduous all-day hike, or challenging climbs needing good equipment and mountaineering skills.
The Estate contains extensive footpaths laid down in the 19th century for the deer ponies. They pass through the pine forest, via waterfalls to inland lochans and the Torridon sandstone interior.
Walking on the estate is enough to fill the most vigorous walker’s week. The proximity to mountains such as Liathach, Ben Alligin and Ben Eighe provide an additional supply of Scotland’s most famous climbs.
Maol Chean Dearg is the highest peak on the Estate and at 933 metres (3,060 feet) and is the only munro. In the foreground is Lochan Eoin, the haunt of both black-throated and red-throated divers. To climb Maol Chean Dearg by an easy route would take most of a day.
Ben Damph itself is also a spectacular and challenging climb, rising to 2,960 feet, just a few feet off munro height. Once at the top, there’s a two-mile ridge walk comparable to all the more frequently visited munros.
For river walks there is the river Thrail (estate water), which runs through the estate into the river Torridon (the Thrail House is situated next to the river). There is also the river Balgy (not estate water) that runs from Loch Damph to the sea just west of the estate boundary. Both these rivers are very pretty with many waterfalls.
As well as everything the estate has to offer, there are many historic sites, museums, gardens, craft and visitor centres in the surrounding Torridon area.
At over three and a half miles long, Loch Damph is the largest inland loch on the estate. It is easily accessible by car and has some of the best brown trout fishing in Scotland. Boats are available to hire to house tenants during the season.
Day rate for boat hire – £35, with local Ghillie – £65
Irish Lough Boat now available for £60 a day self-drive taking a maximum of three people. (She is called Keda and was made in Ireland by David Gray of Lough Arrow boats)
Boats are booked directly with the boat man and ghillie – contact numbers are available from the estate office.
There are many other lochs on the estate with varied accessibility. For some visitors, one of the greatest attractions are the large number of hill lochs. Many of the more remote lochs are rarely fished and offer fine fishing opportunities for wild brown trout.
Salmon River
The estate has one salmon river, The Thràil. The river Thràil flows into the Torridon river near where it meets the Sea at Upper Loch Torridon. It has some good pools and many excellent specimen salmon have been caught on this stretch. The Thràil House is situated next to this river.
Sea Fishing
Loch Torridon is a large sea loch which is impassable by fleet trawlers, this provides a mini haven for local fish stocks and good bottom fishing for the sea angler.
Apart from the beach fishing from the shores of the estate, boats can be chartered for sea fishing at Shieldaig, just a few miles away.
Ben Damph means hill of the stag in Gaelic and it is historically a ‘deer forest’, meaning it was managed for red deer stalking. In the modern age it has become as much about the forest as the deer. The estate has planted native trees such as birch, oak and Scots pine and fenced off large areas to encourage regeneration. In the long run, the deer exclosures should generate enough trees to connect surrounding fragments of the ancient Caledonian forest. We manage the deer as part of this programme of bringing back the forest, whilst also harvesting sustainable, healthy meat. On the wider estate we keep semi-wild sheep as a source of ethical meat. We also encourage people with the right skills to help us manage wildlife such as rabbits and greylag geese, that are controlled as part of food production.
A word about pricing
We charge an ‘outing fee’ for the day on the hill as we believe that the best part of the experience is the stalk itself. We charge a little extra for shot fired and would expect in most circumstances for a suitable animal to be found for culling. The stalkers fee should be around £175 but this can vary depending on the stalker and the amount of time you are out. We encourage anyone who kills an animal to take them home to eat – and to help bring the animal off the hill!
Costs:
Stags £500 (£150 outing fee £175 shot fired ~£175 for stalker)
Hinds £350 (£150 outing fee £25 shot fired ~£175 for stalker)
Soay sheep
We keep a flock of semi-feral Soay sheep on the estate as source of ethical meat. Unlike domestic sheep they are impossible to round up! So, we rely on culling them in the wild to manage the population. This can mean shooting the animals on the hill or in the parkland around the estate. There is no fee for shot fired as you are pretty much guaranteed to get a sheep. The meat is delicious and highly sought after by professional chefs.
Costs:
Soay sheep £350 (£150 outing fee ~£175 for stalker)
Wild meat for the pot
Rabbits around the village are controlled to stop them over-running the local vegetable beds. Greylag geese are controlled where they are eating grass intended for domestic animals. Again, we would encourage anyone who wants to shoot these animals to take them home for the pot.
Costs:
£30 per gun per day (£15 half a day) + £10 for a brace of rabbits/one greylag goose
Only a few hundred yards from the Ben Damph Lodge, a resident family of otters can be seen. Seals and porpoises are commonly spied in Upper Loch Torridon, and golden eagles are frequently observed soaring high overhead and occasionally the visitor is privileged by a glimpse of a white tailed eagle.
The huge quantity and diversity of bird life includes buzzard, golden eagle, peregrine falcon, merlin, grey heron, ptarmigan, red grouse, black-throated and red-throated divers, dipper, curlew, great and lesser black-backed gulls, cormorant and raven to name just a few.
Red and roe deer are widespread and often encountered even on short walks. Pine martens inhabit the woodlands and soay sheep roam wild on the estate.
The woodland on the Estate provides a great variety of plant life. An ancient woodland of sessile oak and silver birch on the border of Loch Damph has been designated an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), with over 200 species of vascular plants identified on the site. 200 acres have been fenced off for natural regeneration on the Estate, and a further 200 acres of woodland planted with native species.
Torridon Bar/hotel/restaurant, Countryside Centre and Deer Museum, telephone, cafe/shop
Shieldaig Shop/post office, bar/hotel/restaurant
Kinlochewe Shop, cafe, craft shop, telephone, bar/hotel/restaurant, petrol station
Loch Carron Craft shops, small supermarket, butchers, several hotels/restaurants, garage/petrol station
Applecross Bar/hotel/restaurants (with excellent seafood)
Eilean Donan Castle
About 30 miles from the Ben Damph Lodge, this classic Scottish landmark is at Dornie, on the shore of Loch Alsh. In addition to this great historical monument, there are the famed Falls of Glomac, at the head of Loch Long.
Find out more about Eilean Donan Castle…
Inverewe Gardens
The gulf stream provides the North West coast of Scotland with the ideal environment for exotic trees, shrubs and plants. These famous gardens built by Osgood MacKenzie are 25 miles north of Ben Damph.
Find out more about Inverewe Gardens…
Highland Games
During July, the Lochcarron and Applecross Games are amongst the local Highland Games open for all spectators and participants. They are terrific fun.
Local Golf Courses
Loch Carron Golf Course – A 9-hole golf course with some challenging holes.
Gairloch Golf Course – A 9-hole golf course in a spectacular sealoch-side setting.
Early Times
The whole of the Beinn Damh Estate lies in the parish of Applecross (a’chomraich in gaelic) and thus in former times was part of the lands of the ancient Abbey of Applecross, founded by St Malruba (Maol Rubha) in 673 A.D. Some place names on the estate reflect the fact that they were on the edge of this ecclesiastical property. For many years, the titular Abbot of Applecrcross was drawn from the clan Anrias, the ancient Rosses. Following their fall from grace in the fifteenth century the parish fell into the hands of the nearly related clan Coinnich, the MacKenzies. Indeed the MacKenzies of Applecross held most of the parish until the nineteenth century. Perhaps not surprisingly the principal surname in the area is MacKenzie, though there are many MacDonalds along the North shore of Loch Torridon, approaching Gairloch Parish.
The Annat Skull
Annat is the surviving village of the estate, and former home of the famous Annat skull. The skull was from of an unfortunate woman called Grant who committed suicide. In the eighteenth century, a suicide was not permitted burial in sanctified ground, so Grant was buried outside, close to the wall of the old burial ground. Her skull came up to the surface many times and eventually became famous throughout the Celtic world as the instrument in a cure for epilepsy. It was necessary to drink water out of the skull from a particular spring and at the same time perform a prescribed walk accompanied by certain incantations. Though seeming somewhat strange today, apparently it never failed to work.
The Victorian Era
In the latter half of the nineteenth century the Earl of Lovelace (4th) purchased the Beinn Damh Estate from the Duke of Leeds, at that time the proprietor of Applecross, and built Beinn Damh House (now the Torridon Hotel). The present Earl of Lovelace (6th) lives in Torridon House, his father having bought the Torridon Estate in about 1950.
As well as building the Beinn Damh House and several other fine houses on the Beinn Damh Estate the 4th Earl set about building the splendid network of stone paths, which cross and re-cross the whole estate. These paths are superbly engineered and unsurpassed in the Highlands. Path building ceased at the outbreak of war in 1914 and was never resumed.
The 20th Century
In the early 1960s Beinn Damh House was converted into a hotel and managed by the Lovelace family, who moved into Torridon House.
Following the death of the 5th Earl the now Loch Torridon Hotel and the Beinn Damh Estate were sold to Major Braithwaite who later sold the hotel back to the Countess of Lovelace and the estate to a Dutchman, Mr Katz.
The present proprietors purchased the estate from Mr Katz in 1983. The Loch Torridon Hotel now belongs to Mr & Mrs David Gregory and family.