Lough Mardal Eco Lodge
Ballintra, County Donegal · Sleeps 2–4
Skydome yurts and shepherd's huts on the shore of a Donegal lake, lit by lantern and candle.
€€
- Lakeside
- Off-grid
- Yurts
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Photographs by Eagle Brae, used with permission.
- Best Self-Catering Accommodation Experience, Scottish Thistle Awards (national winner)
Eagle Brae
Struy, Scottish Highlands, Scotland
A hand-carved cedar log cabin village on a Highland hillside where red deer and eagles are the neighbours.
Why we love it
A hand-carved cedar log cabin village on a Highland hillside where red deer and eagles are the neighbours. Turf roofs, wood-burning stoves, hydro and biomass power. National winner of Best Self-Catering Accommodation Experience at the Scottish Thistle Awards. Book direct.
Best for: Highland wildlife and log-fire winters
Worth knowing
- There is a fairly steep driveway up to the cabins; in heavy snow guests leave the car in a winter parking area at the bottom and are taken up by all-terrain vehicle.
- A mandatory £200 loss and damage deposit is payable against every booking, and dogs are £30 each per stay.
- The nearest shops and places to eat are in Beauly, thirteen miles and about twenty minutes away.
The practicalities
- Check in
- Ready by 4pm; tell them in advance if you will arrive after 7pm
- Check out
- By 10am
- Wifi
- Good
- Included
- Linen, towels and a hairdryer
- A welcome hamper of local Scottish produce
- Firelighters, kindling, logs and electricity
- Olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, tea and coffee
- Soap, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and toilet rolls
- Extras
- A dog — £30.00 per dog, per stay
- Loss and damage deposit — £200 against every booking
Getting there
- Nearest station
- Beauly — 13 miles, about 20 minutes from the door
- Without a car
- Difficult, but possible
Beauly is the closest village and has the nearest railway station, a twenty-minute drive away; Inverness station is forty minutes and Inverness Airport, around thirty miles off, a fifty-minute drive. The postcode is IV4 7LE, and the owners say Google Maps has proved more accurate than satnav for finding them. The driveway up to the cabins is fairly steep.
What is around it
Towns
- Beauly · 13 miles — A railway station, a number of shops, eateries and other amenities.
- Inverness — Forty-five minutes' drive; the airport is around thirty miles away.
Stations
- Beauly station · 13 miles — Regular trains run between Beauly and Inverness.
Who runs it
Mike and Pawana Spencer-Nairn
Mike's family has held the 8,000-acre Struy estate since the 1930s. He met Pawana in her home village in Himachal Pradesh, India, where her family ran a guesthouse; they married, had two children and moved to Scotland in 2005 to build Eagle Brae. The team also includes an office manager, a local estate manager, three housekeepers and a firewood expert.
Where it is
Checked August 2026 · We re-verify prices and opening every quarter.
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