Highland Sanctuary: Whispering Pine Lodge and Discovering Loch Lochy and the Isle of Skye
- Martin Hesp
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Everyone has heard of Loch Ness for one very obvious reason - but how many readers, I wonder, know of it’s little sister, the sweetly named but equally splendid Loch Lochy?
I know about it now because I recently spent a couple of nights on its southerly shore at an amazing hotel called The Whispering Pine Lodge. There can’t be many establishments in the UK better placed to show visitors the very best a place has to offer. You wake up, draw the curtains and the first thing you say is: “Wow!”
For there, stretching before you, is the great elongated stretch of Loch Lochy, bordered on the either side by steep mountainsides. The view is magnificent. It is one of those places where you could wile away many ours without leaving your room, just admiring the view. Not that we did that - the weather was far too good to stay indoors.
The Highlands have a way of wrecking the best-laid plans. You head out with a map and a modest itinerary, only to find the light hitting a sea loch so stunningly beautiful, you then double your intended mileage just to see what’s around the next headland.
We did a lot of that during our recent stay at Whispering Pine Lodge, as I shall outline in a moment. But even if the heavens had delivered rain instead of sunshine I would have poured plenty of praise on this hotel. The lodge occupies a prime piece of Highland real estate, sitting right on the shores of Loch Lochy and tucked under a steep, wooded canopy that gives the place its name. The place has a long pedigree - originally built in the 1800s as a hunting lodge for the MacMartins of Letterfinlay, it eventually became the well-known Letterfinlay Lodge hotel. Under its current guise as part of the Black Sheep Hotels group, it has been polished into a retreat that feels both deeply traditional and cosmopolitan.
Exploring Fort Augustus and the Great Glen
We began our exploration of the area with a quick five minute drive to Fort Augustus, a village made famous by the fact that it sits at the southerly end of Loch Ness. This is one of the places where the Caledonian Canal leaves the natural lakes (or lochs), so any vessel travelling up or down the huge geological fault-line known as the Great Glen has to negotiate an impressive flight of locks right in the heart of the village.
You can spend a very pleasant half-hour watching the boats working their way up or down this watery ladder.
In the bright, clear air of a Highland spring, the village was heaving with tourists and there was a distinct high-day and holiday feel as we strolled around. But with the sun high and the visibility stretching for miles, we felt the pull of the further west. The Great Glen is a magnificent trench, but on days like this, it serves as a gateway to the more jagged, wilder edges of the Atlantic coast.
The drive from Invergarry through Glen Moriston runs along a stretch of paved road the must be one of the most magnificent in Britain. It follows the river through a landscape of ancient birch and pine, eventually opening out as you climb toward the watershed. When the weather is as fine, the light illuminates range after range of hills, turning the distant peaks of Kintail into a series of overlapping blue silhouettes.
We made our way to Dornie, where the iconic Eilean Donan Castle sits at the meeting point of three great sea lochs. Even for those who’ve seen it a thousand times on postcards and in TV travelogues, the old fort remains a marvel. As we’d visited before, we didn’t stop for the tour this time - my thoughts were firmly on the Kyle of Lochalsh and the great sweeping arc of the Skye Bridge.
A Pilgrimage to the Isle of Skye
For me, crossing onto the Isle of Skye felt like a form of pilgrimage. Nearly 50 years ago I drove all the way up to the Highlands in an old Morris 1000 van with a rowing boat on the roof, but back in those days the glorious road I’ve just described over from Invergarry was just a single track thing that rattled the bones out of both any car and certainly an old wooden boat. So we gave up and took the shorter drive to Oban - and I’ve never attempted to reach the isle since.
Nowadays all the Highlands roads are glorious, by the way - far better than our own down south - and I drove our posh BMW hire car across the big bridge and finally onto Skye with a very broad smile upon my face.
This huge island has a heft and gravity of its own. The place somehow draws you in with the promise of landscapes that feel older and more elemental than anything on the mainland.
We pushed north, the Red Cuillins rising to our left, their scree slopes glowing in the midday sun. Our destination was Portree, the island’s capital. In my humble opinion, there is no point in looking for linen-tablecloth dining when the harbour offers fish and chips that can be eaten straight from a cardboard carton. Not while fishing boats bob in the water and you can sit in warm sunshine out of a cool wind down on the harbour beach.
Rather than retracing our steps, we decided to make a proper day of it by heading north to Uig and then west out toward Dunvegan. We bypassed the village’s famous castle, partly because it was closed, and also because we just wanted to admire the truly magnificent landscapes and seascapes of western Skye.
The drive down this western coast, past Coillnore and Drynoch, offers a dramatic and raw Atlantic perspective that many visitors miss. I am tempted to say: this is proper Skye and it couldn’t be anywhere else. But then, I’ve never been over to the nearby Hebrides - I suspect they might well have similar terrains. One of my ambitions now is to visit the likes of Uist and Harris.
The great western shores of Skye are windswept and rugged, punctuated by small crofting communities and sudden, breathtaking views of the sea. As we rounded the southern end of our loop, the Black Cuillins came into view - jagged, dark, and vast. I told my wife that the last time I saw anything similar - a place so big and so empty - was way up in the Yukon. The Cuillins are, perhaps, the most impressive mountains in Britain, and in this light, they looked like something from a Norse myth.
Culinary Surprises in the Highlands
By the time we crossed back over the bridge and began the long journey south, the shadows were lengthening. It had been a long travel day - the kind where your eyes are slightly weary from the sheer scale of the scenery. So we stopped for dinner at Rokeby Manor, a sister property to the Whispering Pine, located near Invergarry. It is a handsome Victorian house, but the menu inside is a delightful surprise. Instead of the predictable “haggis-and-heather” clichés, we were treated to an Indian-themed dinner that was subtle, authentic, and full of genuine craft.
This unique Highland-meets-India culinary theme is something that sets the Black Sheep Hotels apart. Back at the Whispering Pine Lodge, the food is similarly inspired. There is something brilliant about sitting in a room filled with Highland pine and looking out over the dark waters of Loch Lochy while eating food that carries the genuine heat and complexity of the subcontinent.
The Lochside Brasserie manages a clever trick: it feels like a traditional Highland lodge, yet the kitchen produces Indian-inspired dishes that are genuinely delicious.
The next morning, the loch was a mirror, and we really could hear the whispering or soughing in the neighbouring pines. During our stay we’d covered hundreds of miles, seen some of the finest scenery in Europe, and returned to a place that felt like a sanctuary. The Highlands may be unpredictable, but when the weather and the hospitality align as they did on this trip, there is nowhere else on earth quite like it.
A Marriage of Spices and Scenery
While the menus at The Whispering Pine Lodge and Rokeby Manor offer local staples like cullen skink and haggis, it is the authentic North Indian and “Northern Frontier” cuisine that really distinguishes these Highland outposts. This is a far cry from a high-street takeaway - here, the spices are handled with the kind of restraint and complexity you’d expect from a specialist kitchen.
For starters, there’s dahi chaat -bite-sized pastry puffs filled with chickpeas, tamarind chutney, and cooling yoghurt. My chicken tikka was simply one of the best I have ever sampled, cooked in a traditional clay tandoor oven.
The main courses lean into rich, slow-cooked territory. The dal makhani, a North Indian black lentil curry simmered for hours, is creamy and comforting, while the Hyderabadi lamb shank—marinated in yoghurt and spices—falls away from the bone k. For those preferring seafood, the fish Amritsari offers a Punjabi-influenced take on local catch. A bold, successful marriage of Scottish produce and subcontinental heritage.
Fact File 1
The Whispering Pine Lodge and Cabins is set against a backdrop of steep forested mountain on the banks of Loch Lochy. With its own private pebbled beach, it is a short drive from Fort William. The Lochside Brasserie offers waterside dining.
For further information telephone 01397 713966, email reservations@blacksheephotel.com or visit https://www.blacksheephotels.com/the-whispering-pine-lodge. Prices start from £575 for two nights for two people.
Fact File 2
Martin uses Holiday Extras, the market leader in UK airport parking, hotels, lounges, and transfers. Booking airport parking means you can enjoy more holiday with less hassle. Plus with Flextras, if you need to cancel or amend you can without charge. Five days’ Meet & Greet parking at Bristol Airport is available from £138. For more information and to book, HolidayExtras.com or call 0800 316 5678.
Comments