Lochside luxury
When owners Anna Low and Phil Crowe got the keys to Foyers Lodge, they rolled up their sleeves to reinstate its Highland charm, finds Nichola Hunter
From the day it was built, Foyers Lodge has been associated with Highland hospitality and its current owners were keen to continue this legacy. An inn was first built at Foyers, halfway down the eastern shore of Loch Ness, in the mid-1600s and was mainly frequented by cattle drovers moving cattle to and from markets in the south.
There has been a property on the site almost continuously to this day, for the most part offering accommodation and hospitality in some guise. The present building, Foyers Lodge, was extended in 1863 and this is the footprint that current owners Anna Low and Phil Crowe inherited when they bought the property in 2016.
Looking to leave their busy careers in London behind, the couple came across the lodge while visiting Anna’s parents in Aberdeenshire. ‘We were looking for a complete lifestyle change,’ Anna recalls. ‘We didn’t have a specific location in mind; we were looking from the top of the UK to the bottom. When we came across Foyers, we immediately fell in love with what it could be and its amazing location overlooking Loch Ness.’
There was, explains Phil, a vast amount of urgent work that needed to be done when they first got the keys. ‘For the majority of its life it had been a hotel but latterly it had been turned into a huge self-catering outfit accommodating around 24 people,’ he says. ‘It was very tired. There was lots of mend and make do and nothing significant had been done since the nineties.’
“We immediately fell in love with its amazing location overlooking Loch Ness
‘However, it is a Victorian building,’ says Anna, ‘and the Victorians knew what they were doing. Instinctively everything was already in the right place. The drawing room and dining room have beautiful, large bay windows that look out over the loch and there is a very clear delineation as to what is front and back of house. It was just sitting waiting to be loved and used again.’
Which is what Anna and Phil set out to do, planning a massive renovation that was to take them three years. ‘We started from the top down and it was a voyage of adventure,’ Phil remembers. ‘You never know what you’re going to find in a property this age. We picked a room to live in and just camped as we worked our way through.
‘There was lots of basic work, years of neglected downpipes and guttering, roof repairs. We had a scheme of works including changing the heating system to biomass. However, it all sort of happened at the same time so the whole house became a disaster zone. We made it terrible and then bit by bit made it nice again.’
According to Phil, making it nice again was Anna’s doing. ‘I confess that really I have nothing to do with the way it looks, that’s all down to Anna and her flair. I just do what I’m told,’ he laughs.
Phil is selling himself a bit short, considering Anna’s plans included reinstating and restoring as many of the Victorian features as they could.
‘We’ve tried our level best to be as true to the old building as possible and refurbished the original woodwork wherever possible, the architraves,
“We picked a room to live in and camped as we worked our way through
skirtings, all external fascias and the reinstatement of replica finials are all Phil’s work,’ says Anna. ‘I have lots of photographs of the house through the ages – as a hotel, a guest house, there’s even one in the National Portrait Gallery archives from the 1860s.
‘From the day I viewed the house I had a very clear idea as to how I wanted it to look and also of the atmosphere I wanted to create. I picked the colours a long time before any paint went on the walls and they were inspired by what I see outside – the birch, the heather, the pine forest and the loch.
‘However, the furniture that I put in the rooms has very much evolved. There is a lot of antique furniture as I’ve been collecting for years. I choose carefully and pick pieces that have history but are not tatty. I’ve bought lots of chairs that I’ve had reupholstered in contemporary fabrics and designs which I’ve found on Instagram. It’s a great platform for finding independent sellers and ideas.
‘I also enjoy going to the auctions at Elgin, and Strichen
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The colours were inspired by what I see outside – the birch, the heather, the forest
Antiques & Curios in Fraserburgh is one of our go-to places. I especially love winning a bid, even though you have to pay in the end. I think it’s been one of my favourite parts of the project.’
Something else the couple have enjoyed is finally being able to open the house to guests. ‘I really like having people here, it makes the house come alive,’ says Phil. ‘This is a property that was designed to always have people in it. If we were living here by ourselves, we would never use every room every day. We wouldn’t light all the fires, the whole house just wouldn’t be used which would be sad.’
‘When I first walked into the building, it felt like a friendly building,’ Anna recalls. ‘It should have people in it. I love doing
Saturday night dinner for guests and the dining room is full of people having a nice time. If we don’t stuff them too full, they migrate to the bar for a chat. It’s all very sociable and reminds me of a bygone era when people did congregate in more shared spaces. It’s lovely.’
The legacy of Foyers Lodge lives on and appears to be in very safe hands with owners Anna and Phil. Despite the passing of the centuries, in somewhere as beautiful as Foyers, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
“I really like having people here – it makes the house come alive