The ULTIMATE shooting estate
Film and TV companies head to Highland hideaway for the location that has everything
IT is the ultimate shooting estate, boasting 40,000 acres of unspoilt Highland wilderness. Yet it is not sportsmen in pursuit of grouse and deer who are flocking to Ardverikie – but, instead, international film crews. For the estate and grand stately home at the head of Loch Laggan, near Newtonmore in Inverness-shire, has become one of the country’s most sought-after movie and TV locations.
It is most famous for becoming the fictional Glenbogle Estate for BBC series Monarch of the Glen between 2000 and 2005.
But in recent months Ardverikie Estate – a favourite holiday destination of Queen Victoria – has featured in scenes for the newest James Bond blockbuster, No Time to Die, and hit Netflix TV series The Crown.
It was also a stopover in The Grand Tour: Lockdown Special last year, with former Top Gear stars Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May and has featured in the popular Outlander series.
Film insiders say the diversity of the landscape, with secluded lochside views, thick ancient woodland, slowflowing rivers and neighbouring mountains, as well as the picturesque 19th Century grey granite Baronial mansion, with pepper-pot turrets, ticks many boxes for directors.
‘It has everything needed to portray the Scottish fairytale to global audiences, as well as some great stunt locations,’ said an industry insider.
Once part of the vast swathe of lands owned and run by Clan MacPherson, Ardverikie became a profitable deer-stalking estate in the early 1800s. Queen Victoria spent the summer of 1847 there with Prince Albert and is said to have almost bought the estate house but was driven away by midges before settling on Balmoral soon after.
OWNED by the same family for 150 years, it is currently run by 20 family member shareholders – all descendants of Sir John William Ramsden, who was the sixth richest man in England when he purchased Ardverikie in 1871. Unlike some Scottish estates, Ardverikie House is not open to the public. However, people are welcome to walk around the estate and can stay in a number of holiday lodges and cottages.
The grounds were chosen to film a key scene in Bond blockbuster No Time to Die – Daniel Craig’s final instalment as 007 – which is released next month.
Stunt crews raced a Range Rover around the secluded forest tracks before an epic crash, which saw the dark grey SUV flip over and career down an embankment.
A helicopter with an attached camera flew overhead to capture the dramatic shot.
Last month, Ardverikie took the place of Balmoral Castle during filming for The Crown. It is not the first time the estate house has been used in place of the Royal Deeside residence.
Wearing jeans, a pink shirt and navy blue blazer, Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki looked the
spitting image of Princess Diana as she stepped out on the shore of Loch Laggan alongside two young actors playing Princes William and Harry.
It was in 1997 that the scenic estate’s possibilities as a filming location were noticed on a grand scale, when it was chosen for Golden Globe and Bafta-winning Mrs Brown, starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Billy Connolly. In one of the film’s most iconic scenes, the pair can be seen horse-riding around the estate. In 2000, the estate house shot to fame as Glenbogle Castle in Monarch of the Glen, which told the story of a young restaurateur trying to restore his childhood home to its former glory. The series, which ran for seven seasons and was loosely based on Sir Compton Mackenzie’s Highland novel, was shown across the UK and went on to be broadcast in more than 25 other countries, prompting a surge in visitors to the area.
At the show’s peak, it brought an estimated £2 million a year to the local economy.
While they were welcomed by the community, the crew were forced to safeguard themselves from the midges, which deterred Queen Victoria 150 years earlier, and many sported nets over their faces.
Ardverikie was also used in 2011 film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, and 2018’s Outlaw King about Robert the Bruce’s battle to regain control of Scotland.
The filming is a key part of the private estate’s income stream, which also includes a renewable energy scheme and holiday rentals.
The estate website states: ‘Ardverikie’s beautiful surroundings make it an obvious choice as a filming location in Scotland’.
Phil Lloyd, Ardverikie estate manager, said: ‘Ardverikie is a successful commercial enterprise.
‘It remains a complete estate with a central grand house surrounded entirely by land within its ownership – some 62 square miles. It contains a wide variety of landscapes and geographic features and large tracts of wilderness.’
Everything to portray Scottish fairytale to global audiences