A historic hideaway
Highland country house sits in its own glen, scene of a murder that fascinated Robert Louis Stevenson
IT sits in splendid isolation within a beautiful glen, placing you fully three miles from another living soul. To city-dwellers grown weary by the difficult morning commute, Bealach House must constitute something of a dream. And at just under £500,000, it’s being sold for the same price as a semi in a decent part of Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Your nearest neighbours are the golden eagles which soar above Salachan Glen, the deer seen foraging for food in nearby fields and the cheeky pine martens, fed peanut butter to protect their teeth by the present owner of Bealach House.
Yet for all its picture postcard image, the surrounding West Highland countryside harbours ‘derring-do’ adventures which have thrilled the world… and a murder that will live forever in infamy.
First the house. What was once a shepherd’s cottage 200 years ago has been developed over the centuries to create first a farmhouse and now a five-bedroom country home sitting in eight acres of grounds.
Interesting architectural details include crow-stepped gables, a charming castellated projection and a turret over the entrance.
The property can only be found by travelling one and a half miles down a country track at Duror of Appin, midway between Oban, Argyll, and Fort William, Inverness-shire.
A profusion of windows affords panoramic views towards Fraochaidh – known as the heathery hill – and glimpses of Loch Linnhe.
The kitchen is very much the engine room of the house, where Hilary and James McFadyen have provided a four-star B&B business for the past 12 years.
It comes with Corian worktops, a gas-fired Aga and six-burner Lacanche range. Downstairs, there is the lounge, dining room, conservatory, living room, dining hall, study, a bedroom and bathroom.
The first floor hosts the master bedroom, with dressing room and shower room and three further en suite bedrooms which makes Bealach House so convenient for receiving guests.
Mrs McFadyen says: ‘We most enjoy the peace and quiet. Glencoe is only ten miles away and you never lose the feeling you are getting away from it all.
‘We are the only house in the glen, so we have terrific views from every window. Summer’s great but you see more deer in winter… and the occasional pine marten.
‘Someone told me to put out jam sandwiches for them but I was worried that would be bad for their teeth, so I give them peanut butter.’
Now for the adventure. More than 250 years ago, this part of Scotland was still reeling from the Massacre Of Glencoe and the collapse of the Jacobite uprising at Culloden in 1746.
With simmering clan rivalry just below the surface, the Appin Murder took place near here in May 1752.
The killing of Colin Campbell of Glenure – he was also known as The Red Fox – stunned the authorities and resulted in what is widely believed to be one of Scotland’s greatest miscarriages of justice.
It’s now known that at least three conspirators met at the loch behind Bealach House for target practice. He who emerged as the best shot would be handed the task of assas- sinating the Red Fox, despised for his role as a tax collector.
James Stewart, known as James Of The Glen, was quickly arrested for the fatal musket shot but the real killer was said to be one of four young Stewart lairds.
The trial was a travesty of justice; 11 of the 15 jurors were Campbells and the presiding judge was the Duke of Argyll, the Campbell clan chief.
James Of The Glen was hanged at Ballachulish and his body left to rot on the gibbet for 18 months.
Robert Louis Stevenson was so fascinated by the event he named one of his characters in Kidnapped Alan Breck Stewart.
Alan Breck Stewart was the half-brother of James Of The Glen – and the man widely believed to be the real Appin killer.
Offers over £495,000 to Kevin Maley at Strutt & Parker in Inverness. Tel 01463 719171, kevin. maley@struttandparker.com