There is another side to Drumnadrochit beyond Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle and the steady stream of visitors who come searching for one of the Highlands’ most famous landscapes.
Follow the road towards Cannich and then leave it behind for a quieter track through the countryside, and you eventually reach Dalreach, a traditional Highland cottage sitting privately among woodland and more than 22 acres of its own land.
It is the setting that immediately makes this property interesting, with the house surrounded by gardens, scattered trees and open ground rather than squeezed into a conventional residential plot.
A sweeping driveway brings you through the grounds to the three bedroom cottage, where there is an appealing sense of having reached somewhere genuinely private.
Inside, Dalreach is an older home that would benefit from some modernisation, but there is something refreshing about a property which has not been polished into somebody else’s idea of perfection.
The accommodation is spread across two floors and retains the comfortable proportions and straightforward character that suit a country cottage.
At its heart is a double aspect living room with a wood burning stove, creating the sort of room that makes particular sense when the evenings draw in and the woodland outside disappears into darkness.
The kitchen and dining room sits towards the rear of the house, with two large windows bringing plenty of natural light into a space large enough for everyday cooking and a proper dining table.
One of the three double bedrooms is downstairs, while two further bedrooms occupy the upper floor beneath coomed ceilings and look out across the gardens and surrounding land.
Those views matter here because the outside space is not simply something glimpsed beyond a garden fence.
Dalreach comes with approximately 22.35 acres, stretching around the cottage and creating possibilities that will depend very much upon what its next owner wants from the place.
Closer to the house, established gardens, shrubs and hedging soften the surroundings, while a summerhouse provides somewhere to sit outside and enjoy the peace of the setting.
There is also a log store and useful outdoor space at the rear, while the woodland itself provides a natural screen that gives the property much of its privacy.
Life here would have a distinctly rural character, including a private spring water supply and drainage to a septic tank, yet Dalreach is not completely detached from the practicalities of everyday Highland life.
Drumnadrochit has shops, schools, medical facilities and community services, with Inverness around 13 miles away and the wider landscapes of Glen Urquhart and Loch Ness close at hand.
Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness may bring visitors from across the world to this part of the Highlands, but living here offers something rather different from experiencing it as a tourist.
This is countryside to come home to, with woodland around the house, land beyond the garden and enough distance from the road to make the outside world feel considerably further away than it actually is.
Dalreach will need somebody prepared to put their own stamp on the cottage, but houses can be modernised far more easily than settings like this can be created.
For somebody looking for land, privacy and a Highland home with room for another chapter, that may be precisely where its appeal lies.
The property is being marketed by Munro & Noble
The asking price, full property details, photographs, floor plans, Home Report where available, and viewing information can all be found on the official listing.
Click here to view the official listing
