When the eighth Lord Lovat was a-courting Lady Jane Stewart, he built her a pretty house on the sea shore some three miles west of Inverness. It was completed in 1621 and, being happy with his gift, Jane married him in the same year. The marriage stone may still be seen in the wall of the Bunchrew drawing room.
Later that century the house was sold to Forbes of Culloden, whose descendant erected the monument to the fallen of that battle. In the 19th century, it reverted to the Frasers who extended it in keeping with Lady Jane's original tower house.
Bunchrew retains its character as a hotel - and with ever-burning wood fires inside, the sea lapping the garden wall, the ducks beyond and the sensational sunsets, the charm of those days lingers. |
