Recent history of Kingairloch

Kingairloch has been in the care of the Yeoman and Larson family since the early 1980’s. The late John Yeoman was looking for a site for a coastal quarry and he looked at the neighbouring Glensanda, which was owned by the late Mrs Patricia Strutt who also owned Kingairloch. Mrs Strutt sold Glensanda to John Yeoman, owner of Foster Yeoman Ltd and he developed the coastal quarry until his untimely death in 1987.

Mrs Strutt decided that after a Strutt association of 98 years with Kingairloch, she would like the family company of Foster Yeoman Ltd to purchase Kingairloch, which was agreed in 1989. Mrs Strutt retained the management of Kingairloch until her death in 2001.

In 1996 the Larson family moved to Home Farm and Susan Larson (daughter of John and Angela Yeoman) started an agreed process of restoring the properties on Kingairloch. The premise behind the restoration projects was to achieve a time when Kingairloch could stand-alone and be financially viable. Foster Yeoman Ltd was sold in 2006 and Mrs Angela Yeoman and Mrs Susan Larson bought Kingairloch Estate to take it forward into the future. Although tourism plays a major role at Kingairloch, the estate has diversified into renewable energy, commercial and native forest whilst maintaining traditions as being a magnificent deer forest offering first class red deer stalking. Susan lives at Kingairloch House and her daughter Katrina manages the self-catering bookings and the online aspects of the estate.

Through forward thinking and diversification into different industries, it has become a wonderful place to holiday on the West Coast of Scotland. As you will see from the timeline below, we continually invest in the estate to safeguard it for our future generations.

A brief history of old Kingairloch

We believe in 1509, James IV granted the lands of Kingairloch to Ewen, son of Hector MacLean in exchange for the services of a well-equipped galley of 22 oars.

In the 18th century the Macleans of Kingairloch built Kingairloch House as a replacement for their summer dwelling.  The prior main house was along the coast on the shore of Loch Linnhe and was in the township of Airigh Shamhraidh. During the winter months it was continuously battered by storms, so they choose to site their new main estate residence in a more sheltered location at the head of Loch a’Choire. You are welcome to visit the ruins of Airigh Shamhraidh by walking the coast towards Glensanda. History has well reported the effect of The Highland Clearances and Kingairloch changed from having Township areas to one landholding.

Kingairloch House has been remodeled several times through changes of ownership, with the most notable taking place in 1903-1904 when the Derbyshire cotton mill magnate George Herbert Strutt enlarged the house to three stories with a side wing and turrets for use as their shooting lodge. In the mid 1960’s the house was drastically reduced in size due to the emergence of dry rot and the increasing running costs of such a large property. George Herbert Strutt’s son Arthur married a New Zealander, Patricia Kebbel who lived at Kingairloch until her passing in 2000.

Seaview Cottage, Ghardail Cottage, Pier Cottage, The Old Post Office and Elastic Cottage have all been renovated in a slightly different way but the central Stone construction is the same and we think was quarried from The Pier Quarry.