Boleskine House: Charity looking at Foyers land project

A charity restoring a historic, fire-damaged Highlands property could be involved in a community project in a nearby village.

Boleskine House Foundation is working to restore Bolsekine House, overlooking Loch Ness.

The charity has been offered an opportunity to take a lease of some land in the village of Foyers.

It has been in discussion with Highland Council about how to use this land to support local infrastructure.

Part of the site could be used to provide more parking for tourists visiting the village.

The foundation said that alongside its plans it has also been in discussion with the council about the provision of electric car charging facilities in the car park.

A bid has been lodged by the Highland Council for support from the Scottish government's Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund.

If successful, the charity would work in collaboration with the local authority "to deliver the enhancements for the benefit of the village".

The foundation is restoring Boleskine House, a property best-known as the former home of notorious occultist Aleister Crowley.

Crowley was said to have performed occultist rituals at the property, when he lived there between 1899 and 1913.

The house was badly damaged by a blaze in 2015 before another fire ripped through the site in July 2019.

Boleskine House Foundation has planning permission for the rebuilding work and plans to secure the reinstatement of the property's category B listing.

The estimated cost of the work on the property is £1.2m.

As well as rebuilding the house near Foyers, the foundation has planning consent from Highland Council for the construction of 10 holiday units.

The timber clad, grass roof units would be a mix of one and two-bedroom accommodation.

Boleskine House Foundation was set up to restore and maintain the Boleskine estate. The land was formerly a church parish dating back to the 13th Century.

Previous owners of the estate and its house included a son of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, and key figure during the Jacobite risings in the 18th Century.

Crowley, who died in 1947, was notorious in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century for his promotion of the occult.

During World War One, he wrote anti-British propaganda.

He was also an experienced climber and was part of an ill-fated attempt to scale K2, in modern day Pakistan, in 1902.

Musician Jimmy Page, of the band Led Zeppelin, bought Boleskine House in the 1970s because of the Crowley connection, before later selling it.