The History of Scourie Lodge
The Lodge was originally built in 1835 and has had some very notable guests staying in it. Read on for more information.
The Duke of Sutherland built Scourie Lodge in 1835 for his new bride, the Duchess. However, she preferred to live in their main residence, Dunrobin Castle. Consequently, in 1845, the Duke allowed Mr Evander MacIver to reside at the Lodge. MacIver was a Factor to the Duke from 1845 until 1895. During the latter part of that time, he was also working for the Duke of Westminster. MacIver was a very educated man who had attended three universities, but he was very unpopular with the local people, from whom he collected taxes. It is said that he played a part in the ‘Highland Clearances’. Following his retirement, MacIver continued to live at the Lodge until his death on the 10th January 1903, and is buried, with his wife and some of his children, in Scourie Burial Ground. He had 11 children, of which only four survived into adulthood. During MacIver’s residence at Scourie Lodge, Prime Minister Gladstone visited several times for holidays. For many years after MacIver’s death, the Lodge was used for guests of the Duke of Sutherland. Amongst the more notable visitors were Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the late Queen Elisabeth, the Queen Mother) and the famous author J. M. Barrie. The Lodge was sold by the Duke in the 1940’s, became a private residence, and was later used briefly as a hotel. Around the time of the Second World War, the Lodge and Gardens fell into ruin. During the 1970’s, a Swiss gentleman named Mr Halfner bought them. He spent a small fortune renovating Scourie Lodge, re-designing and modernising its interior to that which exists today. The Lodge changed hands twice more before being bought by Gerald and Penny Klein in 1993. They ran it as a very successful Bed and Breakfast until they retired in 2016 when they passed on the custodianship to Angus Marland and Elisabeth Tønsberg. The great-grandson of Evander MacIver, together with his own son, visited from South Africa in 1998.
Barrie and the Davies boys at Scourie Lodge, August 1911. Back row: George, Millicent Duchess of Sutherland, Peter. Front row: Nico, Barrie, Michael. This extract from the website J M Barrie describes his finding of Scourie Lodge: Barrie had written to the Duchess of Sutherland: “I wonder whether you would in the goodness of your heart set some factor in Sutherland searching for a house for me up there for August and September. I bring four boys with me; what they yearn for is to be remote from Man and plenty of burn trout fishing, of which they never tire from the rising to the setting of the sun. The rate would not so much matter but there should be space for about ten of us including maids.” The Duchess duly responded with Scourie Lodge, a small manor house on the north-west coast of Scotland. Barrie wrote to his cricketing friend Charles Turley-Smith on July 10th: “We are going for seven weeks or so beginning of August to Scourie in the west of Sutherland. 630 miles rail, then a drive 44 miles. The nearest small town is farther than from here to Paris in time. Nothing to do but fish, which however is what they want. [...] I have nearly finished my P. Pan book." Barrie wrote to Nurse Loosemoor (who had nursed Sylvia the previous summer) on September 17th: "We have been here since the last week of July, and return to London in about a week's time. It is a remote place, nearly 50 miles from a railway, and when you want food you have to kill a sheep. it is very beautiful with sea & lochs, all as blue as the Mediterranean, and in the course of their wanderings the boys see eagles, otters, whales, seals, &c. The wanderings are all in search of fish, and it is a great place for fishing. Michael has caught a salmon & nearly a hundred sea-trout. His first sea-trout had a tragic history. It weighed 2½ lbs & he went to bed with it on a chair by his side. Next day it was sent to England to be stuffed & arrived on Bank Holiday. The shop was closed so it was taken to the gardener's cottage of one of the firm. The gardener's wife thought it was a gift from some anonymous friend and ate it. I didn't dare tell Michael until he got the salmon. Jack of course is not with us as he is still on his cruise in Canadian waters. But he writes very interesting letters and seems to be very well. They are all happy I think. It is already a year since their mother died. I took Nicholas out to fish that day, and it was a happy day for him as she would have wished ..." Michael and Nico were accompanied on their fishing expeditions by a local Scots gillie, Johnny Mackay, who, according to Barrie, taught Michael “everything that is worth knowing (which is largely a matter of flies)”. A few months before he died in 1977, Johnny recounted to me with a twinkling eye how Barrie, while fishing with the humbler worm, “looked so scruffy that when the Duchess of Westminster saw him, she thought he was a poacher and ordered him off her land; and he was too shy to say who he was, so he went." Scourie Lodge is now a very attractive and delightful hotel, well worth a visit.
The Gardens It is believed that the walled garden was built in 1835 at the same time as the house to grow vegetables and fruit for the residents of the Lodge and their servants. However, we know that it was also an ornamental garden from an early date. In 1851, seeds of a New Zealand Cabbage Palm Tree were sent in a letter to one of the Scourie gardeners from a relative who lived in New Zealand. They took more than six months to reach Scotland by boat. The seeds were planted, and the resulting trees can still be seen in the garden today. These trees, nearly 150 years old, are amongst the most northerly of their kind in the world. Around the time of the Second World War, the Lodge and Gardens fell into ruin. During the 1970’s, a Swiss gentleman named Mr Halfner bought them. He completely re-designed the garden, retaining, of course, the famous Cabbage Trees. A very keen gardener, Halfner spent virtually all his time in the garden during the twelve years he lived at Scourie. Gerald and Penny Klein maintained Halfner's design of the gardens, and kept them in a beautiful condition throughout their 22 years here. They opened them to the public, and donations from visitors resulted in annual gifts of many hundreds of pounds to Cancer Research. Angus and Elisabeth continued the garden's development through organic husbandry and the principles of Permaculture design. They also created nature trails in the woodland to enhance the diversity and beauty of Scourie Lodge and the quality of its offering to visitors and guests. Sophie and Stuart plan to make use of the growing capabilites of the garden to supply guests with year round food produced on thier doorstep.