Tomdoun Hotel

The oasis of Tomdoun lies a mere six miles off the bustling A87 road to Skye, on the quiet single track former drovers’ road to Kinlochourn. Dating from 1895 and retaining much of its Victorian charm, Tomdoun is a real retreat with no TVs, phones or faxes in the comfortable bedrooms.

The bar is frequented by the locals (always a good sign) and the “crack” is lively. By the fire, impromptu musical sessions are common.

Our restaurant offers the best from the Highland larder of Scotch beef, game and seafood, cooked with flair. This is accompanied by a fine wines list - and over 100 Malt Whiskies.

Long renowned for its fishing (especially its once record breaking brown trout), Tomdoun offers stalking and shooting, as well clay pigeon shooting, white water rafting and mountain biking.

The Hotel is a walkers’ dream, with dozens of Munros within a short distance, some with the best stalkers’ paths in Scotland. There are less taxing but equally rewarding walks by Loch and forest.

Tomdoun is remote but an excellent centre. Eilean Donan Castle and Skye are an easy day trip, and so too is Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal.

Great scenery and a wide range of activities produce large appetites at Tomdoun. Food and drink is such an important part of a holiday break, and at Tomdoun a lot of thought and preparation has gone into making your evening dining as memorable as your daytime exertions. Jason Wilson, our chef, has many years experience in Highland hotels, and believes in cooking the best ingredients simply and presenting them with flair.

The restaurant in the hotel concentrates mainly on seafood, though there is always one meat dish, The meat, whether local West Highland wild venison or the best beef in the world from Aberdeenshire, is carefully sourced, and organic and non-GM whenever possible.

The hotel being inland, obtaining the best of seafood forces the Tomdoun staff to go far and wide. We often drive ourselves to pick up the freshest of local catches, for example much of our shellfish is from Kinlochleven, whilst our langoustines are personally selected from the catches of the creel boat men at Loch Duich.

From further afield, we get our hand dived scallops from the Isle of Skye, whence comes also our award winning Glendale saladOur white fish - haddock, cod and halibut - is landed at the ports of Lochinver and Scrabster, from the clean and cold waters of the North Atlantic. Fish just does not come fresher.

We have 10 comfortable ensuite bedrooms.

The hotel is a fast becoming a party hotel, the atmosphere is tremendous and the hotel lends itself ideally to large groups of people. For weddings we have Tomdoun church some 300 meters from the hotel and also we have a civil license. The maximum number for a sit down meal is 44 but for a buffet we have catered for over 70. There are many cottages for rent in the glen and we would be delighted to arrange these for you.

The Tomdoun Hotel lies at the meeting of the West Highland glens of Glengarry and Glen Quoich, which are steeped in the rich history of the Lochaber district where the glens are located. The hotel itself lies slightly east of the site on an old inn which probably dates back to droving times, when the area round Tomdoun provided an overnight stance for cattle being driven south from Skye and Knoydart. Hundreds of the beasts would gather with their drovers and dogs, before setting off on the three-week walk to Falkirk or Crieff.

Traditionally this area was the land of the MacDonells of Glengarry, one of the most powerful of the Highland clans. The ruins of their main castle stronghold can still be seen at Invergarry. Close by is the infamous Well of the Seven Heads, raised in 1812 by the last MacDonell laird to commemorate a bloody clan vengeance executed on a group of the MacDonell’s enemies in the seventeenth century. The MacDonells supported the Jacobites in the eighteenth century and 400 men from the glens around here joined The Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie) in 1745. Charles spent the night after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 at Invergarry Castle, which was then burnt down by Redcoat troops led by the Duke of Cumberland.

Facilities

Highland Winter Breaks 3rd nt Free

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