Boleskine House

Boleskine House stands on the south-east shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, 21 miles south of Inverness. It began as a hunting lodge built in the 1760s by Colonel Archibald Fraser, who chose the site partly to irritate Simon Fraser of Lovat after the Jacobite rising. The original single-storey building had four bedrooms, a kitchen, a servant’s attic room, a lounge, drawing room and library. A tunnel once linked the house to the nearby graveyard. The parish itself dates from the 13th century, when a kirk and graveyard were established. The house became famous through its owners. Aleister Crowley bought it in 1899 to perform the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, a six-month ritual requiring celibacy and isolation. He described the south-western half as his workspace, with a bow-windowed room leading to a sand terrace and lodge. After Crowley left in 1913, the house passed through various hands, including Major Edward Grant, who died there in 1960. Jimmy Page purchased it in 1970 and restored parts of the building while commissioning occult murals from Charles Pace. Visitors now find a restored manor with many of its original rooms. The large bow-windowed chamber remains, along with the library and drawing room. The grounds, once carefully laid out, stretch down to the lochside. Restoration work completed in 2026 returned the house to public use under the Boleskine House Foundation. The estate still carries traces of its past: the tunnel entrance, the graveyard nearby, and the sense of seclusion that once suited occult rituals.