Pier Cottage, Kingairloch Estate, Scotland

Well I am hopeless! I thought I’d written a blog post about this trip we did in December 2022, but nope, I was mistaken. So I shall make up for that now and tell you about the area, the cottage and what we saw.

Kingairloch is a coastal Highland Estate in Scotland. They have the main estate house which sleeps 12, plus 10 holiday cottages scattered around the estate all available to rent for a holiday. The cottages range from sleeping 2 to 10.

We stayed in Pier Cottage (sleeps 2) which sits on the edge of Loch a’ Choire, a smaller loch joined to Loch Linnhe. These are tidal sea lochs.

The traffic going past the house is minimal, basically just the other cottage renters, some estate workers and a couple of working farms on the estate. There’s a fish farm in the loch, so we would sometimes hear the workers take their little boat across to check on it, but otherwise the cottage and road were very quiet.

The guest book had lots of sightings of pine martens and otters but in the depths of winter, with it so dark outside, we didn’t see any. On most days we just headed out on foot, with our dog being 14 she likes a pretty flat walk so following the estate road was perfect. It follows the curve of the loch so we were able to eventually view our cottage from the opposite side.

Some of the cottages are a little further away, but still easily walked to. A short walk up and then back down the other side to a small collection of houses, including some that looked privately owned or long term rentals. There is also a small church in Kingairloch with one service per month.

We had some really beautiful days and despite the temperature saying it was very cold, the seats in front of the cottage sheltered from the wind were a little sun trap and we were able to enjoy a drink sitting outside.

At the main house there is a Ceilidh hall and a walled vegetable garden you can have a look in. The main house was having some internal renovations done.

We saw a deer pretty close to us. He was just on the other side of a small wall and we watched each other for a bit. He didn’t seem worried. As we drove the estate road on our last day we saw dozens of wild goats. It’s pretty close to the Isle of Mull so seeing Golden eagles and White-tailed eagles is possible, although we didn’t happen to.

We have done quite a bit of exploring of the area on a past trip we did when we stayed on Loch Sunart, so we didn’t really have the urge to venture out in the car every day.

We had a trip to the local brewery, Ardgour Ales, for my husband to buy some beer and we enjoyed their homemade pizzas. We also went to the Ariundle Centre, where we have been before. They have a restaurant that is dog friendly and there’s woodlands nearby to walk the dog. Apart from that we hung at the cottage, enjoyed the views out of the window and the cottage had everything we needed.

A few things to mention, in case anyone decides to book. It’s best to take all your food shopping with you and this can be bought at either Aldi or Marks & Spencer food in Fort William. To get to that side of Loch Linnhe you can either do a massive trip around the loch or you can take the Corran Ferry, which we did. On the estate they used to have a bistro open part of the week in the old boathouse but that is closed and they have some plans for it but no mention of what those were. If you are looking for a quiet and restful holiday then I’d definitely recommend.

I’ve added a video. This is a collection of video chat messages I’d sent to friends that I’ve combined into one. The app uses portrait mode and the quality is lower but it still may be of interest if you want to check it out.