Buteo, a long turf-roofed log cabin on level ground, a log picnic table in the grass before it and the hill behind.

Inverness-shire

Buteo at Eagle Brae

For six, with two bedrooms, firewood and room for the dog.

Welcome

Buteo sits on level ground at the foot of the estate, the closest cabin to reception and the easiest to reach, with no slope to the door.

Its deck faces away from the rest of Eagle Brae and straight down the glen. The name is Latin for the buzzard, which circles the ridges above, and next door is the paddock of Hebridean four-horned sheep: Jo, Truttus and Jupiter.

It sleeps six across two floors. Two bedrooms make up as doubles or twins, the upstairs one with its own bathroom, and two log beds with curtains are built into the mezzanine wall, beside an office nook. Downstairs are the sitting room and its log-burning stove, the kitchen and dining table, and a step-in shower room. Guests can call in at reception for local tips and a hot chocolate on the house.

Instead of your usual run-of-the-mill holiday chalets, everything from the logs to the linen has been lovingly hand-made.

Mike and Pawana Spencer-Nairn, who made Eagle Brae

What is here

A log-burning stove and underfloor heating throughout.

Wood for fires

Private terrace or patio

Books

Dishwasher

Dog friendly

Dryer

Kitchen

Underfloor heating

Washing machine

Welcome hamper

Wood-burning stove

Good to know

Cabins: Ten, sleeping two to six: three for up to six, three for up to four, four for two.
Dogs: Welcome in all ten, at £30 a dog for the stay.
Arriving: From 4pm, and away by 10am. Tell them if you will arrive after 7pm.
In snow: Park at the bottom of the hill and they will take you up in the Land Rovers.
Food: Order groceries, wine and home-cooked meals online before you come, delivered to the cabin.
Power: Heat from a biomass boiler, electricity from their own hydro and solar.
On the estate: Canoeing, black grouse safaris, camera stalking, fishing, clay pigeons and mountain bikes.

At Eagle Brae

From above, Aquila's turf-roofed log cabin and wrap-around deck on the edge of the ridge, the glen stretching away in autumn colour.

Aquila at Eagle BraeSleeps 4 to 6

On the edge of the ridge
A sauna of its own

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Loxia beyond its pond among spring birches, the cabin mirrored in the water under a blue sky.

Loxia at Eagle BraeSleeps 4 to 6

Its own pond in the birches
Deer come to drink

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Ardea through old birch trunks, its turf roof and railed deck mirrored in the pond below, ferns in front.

Ardea at Eagle BraeSleeps 2 to 4

Over the upper duck pond
A sauna of its own

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Certhia on its ridge: a two-storey log cabin of great notched logs under a turf roof, steps up to the door.

Certhia at Eagle BraeSleeps 2 to 4

On a ridge above the resort
A sauna and a freestanding bath

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Cinclus on its slope among spring birches, the hills of the glen behind under a blue sky.

Cinclus at Eagle BraeSleeps 2 to 4

A steep south-facing slope
A sauna of its own

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Parus on its slope at dusk above bluebells in the grass, its gable windows lit.

Parus at Eagle BraeSleeps 2

Every other cabin in view
For stars and the Northern Lights

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Strix on its green slope in summer, the turf roof and deck among birch and oak, the hill behind.

Strix at Eagle BraeSleeps 2

Views down the glen and over the pond
Tawny owls after dark

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Sylvia in sunshine: a log cabin with a pale gable and oak door, whisky barrels along its gravel yard and a birch beside.

Sylvia at Eagle BraeSleeps 2

The only one facing due south
Steps off into the meadow

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Tringa's long turf-roofed log walls on the hill, foxgloves in flower in the grass below.

Tringa at Eagle BraeSleeps 2

Deck turned away from the rest
Over the River Glass

Check dates The whole placeEagle BraeEvery house, the group calendar and what there is to do there.See Eagle Brae

On the estate

What Eagle Brae runs itself, on its own 8,000 acres and the rivers below.

A wooden sign reading Hydro Loop Walk points along a fenced path through dense forest, a large boulder resting on the grass beside it.

From the doorThe Hydro Weir walkAbout three miles, up to the weir that powers the resort, starting just in front of the cabins. The Hebridean sheep graze along it.

Two deer stand alert on a heather-covered ridge, silhouetted against a clear evening sky.

Full or half dayCamera stalkingUp the hill in the Argocat, then on foot to within a hundred yards of wild red deer, with a camera instead of a rifle. Not from 1 September to 20 October.

A wicker welcome hamper for Eagle Brae holding jars of Kashmiri chutney, rowan jelly and raspberry preserve, a miniature Rock Rose gin, a bottle of London Essence tonic, a bar of tablet, postcards and a printed welcome letter, set in green tissue paper.

Order before you comeFood to the doorGroceries, wine, their own pork and lamb, wild venison, and home-cooked Scottish meals with a Himalayan touch, delivered to the cabin.

A rail of jackets and shirts hangs beside leather sofas and a low wooden coffee table stacked with magazines in a log cabin lounge, a wooden carved figure standing near the glazed door.

Scottish and HimalayanThe shop at receptionHand-made things from the Highlands and the Himalayas, some of them the pieces you will have seen in the cabins.

Canoeing: Guided, in two-person Canadian canoes, through a 100-foot gorge on the River Glass.
Black grouse safaris: Out on the hill at dawn to the lek, where the males display, from November to May.
Fishing: Salmon on the fly from July to 15 October, and trout, on the Farrar and the Glass.
Clay pigeon and target shooting: With a guide, a mile or so from the cabins; rifle shooting from 17, not from mid-September to 20 October.
Mountain bikes: For hire, with glen roads, old pine forest and trail centres within a short drive.
Pony trekking: In Glen Affric with the Pocock family, from Cougie, forty minutes' drive away.

Where it is

Eagle Brae is at Struy in Strathglass, on an 8,000-acre estate that has been in the owners' family since the 1930s, between Glen Strathfarrar, Strathglass and Glen Affric.

Inverness, for trains, is about forty minutes by car. The ten cabins stand on a hillside among birch woods, each with walks from its door, and the whole place runs on its own hydro and solar power with a biomass boiler for heat.

Getting hereAround twenty miles west of Inverness, fifty minutes from its airport. The easiest way is from the north-east through Beauly, or from Loch Ness by Drumnadrochit and Cannich. The drive up to the cabins is steep.

Close byWhere the owners send their guests, nearest first.