Balavil

The house has recently been fully restored and decorated and is furnished in period style with much of the furniture and paintings dating from the early period of the house.

Guests are all encouraged to treat the house as their home. This is not a hotel but a friendly family home and our wish is to provide you with a shooting, corporate or pleasure visit where you and your party can relax and enjoy the peace of the Highlands in an atmosphere of comfortable elegance.

Accommodation
Accommodation for up to 20 people is provided in four double and six twin bedrooms, all with their own private bathrooms. The house has full central heating throughout. There is a fully equipped gun room with drying facilities and the estate office can provide comprehensive secretarial and communication services.

The 36' dining room can be used for sumptuous dinner or lunch parties, seating 30 at one table, or it can be arranged to suit more intimate occasions. The nerve centre of Balavil is the huge Victorian style kitchen which provides excellent home-produced cuisine. Seasonal game is a specialty of the house.

Balavil is one hour's drive from Inverness Airport and two hours from both Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Inverness to London railway line stops at Kingussie.

Balavil Estate extends to approximately 7,500 acres running from the River Spey up into the mountains of the Monadhliaths. The Estate is long and narrow, approximately 8 miles long by 2 wide, and runs from marshlands around the River Spey through an agricultural belt and commercial forestry plantations, birch wood and onto moor land, which extends up into Coignafearn Estate. To the west is Pitmain Estate and to the east is Dunachton Estate. The land rises to approximately 1,800 feet at the highest point and is generally of rolling landscape rather than the steeper topography of the west.

The Estate has been famed for its sport since the late 18th century when Colonel Thornton rented the land and invited many guests to come and enjoy the sport there. The sport was probably at its zenith at the turn of the last century when seasonal bags of 1300 brace of grouse where achieved and wild pheasants were to be found all over the Estate.

The sporting is still run commercially under the control of head-keeper Arthur Duffus.

Driven Grouse
The best days at Balavil over recent years have resulted in days of 75 brace being achieved on the hill. The estate is fully butted for two separate days of driving and there are 14 separate drives on the moor.

Grouse are notoriously difficult bird to predict on a seasonal basis and with the shape of the Estate the weather is also greatly influential in the success of a day. When the grouse are plentiful, however the drives provide some of the best shooting in Scotland. We prefer to leave the booking of grouse till June so that we have an idea of the success of the breeding season.

Walked-up Grouse
Walked up days for up to 6 guns is a specialty on the Estate and the relatively easy terrain makes for entertaining days for guests and their dogs. Bags of up to 25 brace per day are achievable.

We also encourage black powder shooting and for the past 10 years have started the season with 3 days dedicated to muzzle loading guns.

Pheasant shooting
Over the last 6 years the estate have developed a very entertaining small pheasant shoot at Balavil. The estate put down approximately 3000 birds and can provide days of up to 150 very sporting birds. Lunch at the house is always one of the highlights of the day!

Blue Hares
In recent years the estate have shot up to 2000 blue hares in the course of a season though again, like grouse, they are a fluctuating commodity. Guests are transported to the top of the hills where hares are driven towards them. In the months of November, December and January when there is snow on the ground, it can provide very entertaining sport. Up to 200 hares a day can be shot.

Rough Shooting
The mixed typography of Balavil provides some wonderful locations for mixed rough shooting and combined with grouse, pheasants and hares we can offer days, which include ducks on 5 flight ponds, woodcock, snipe and rabbit. They normally have an expectation of 10 - 15 head per day per gun.

Red Deer stalking
The first 3 weeks of October are dedicated to red deer stalking for stags. Our terrain is ideally suited for exciting and entertaining stalking and several trophy heads have been taken off the hill in recent years.

Roe stalking
On the low ground, woodlands and on the hill we have a small number of roebuck, which provide entertaining stalking during the months of June and July.

Sika stalking
There are a limited number of Sika deer on the Estate.

Fishing
The Estate owns 3 miles of fishing on the River Spey. There are 2 named pools where the River Tromie and Raits burn flow into the river which provide fast water for fly-fishing and are probably the best two holding salmon pools up stream from Loch Insh. The whole water can be atrolled by boat.

There is also excellent trout fishing over the whole river and brown trout up to 5lbs in weight have been caught recently.

You can enquire about this property by either using the form below to send us a message or by using the following details: