Virtual Tour
Take a 'virtual tour' of some of the House of Aigas grounds and facilities. To view these images you must have QuickTime 3.0 or better installed on your computer.
The latest version of QuickTime may be downloaded free from Apple
Click on the photographs to open the 'VR' panoramas in a new window.Lady Lister-Kaye's Pond is named after the late Helen Lister-Kaye, Sir John's mother who died in 1979. The rockery garden and its borders is a blaze of herbaceous colour all summer long and the pond is a subtle blend of interests: the gardener and the naturalist. The pond for frogs and newts, dragonflies, water boatmen and lots of wild plants in and out of the water, and the gunnera and purple flags, and many other interesting varieties around the edge and along the paths for effect. It is also the house's best face, much photographed from here.
The narrow Imperial Stair is lit by three huge lancet windows facing south. Two 19th century French wood nymph carvings guard the approach and huge 18th century Chinese export vases stand in the corners. The portraits are Lister-Kaye family and a small collection of the 'Glasgow Boys', a late 19th and early 20th century artistic movement based on the Glasgow Academy of Art and led by Sir James Guthrie. A fine example of Guthrie's work hangs over the stairs.
The Common Room is the room given to each resident group for common use. It can be lounge, lecture room, bar and a place for a ceilidh (party). Guests are encouraged to treat it as their own room where they can relax, have tea in front of a crackling pine log fire or engage in their own studies. It contains a collection of Highland taxidermy: ptarmigan, capercaillie, pine marten, red squirrel, kingfisher, ferox trout, salmon and many other items of interest.
The Affric Room was the Victorian master bedroom with its own dressing room, now a bathroom en suite. This family bedroom houses a fine example of a 19th century half-tester bed with original canopy, a 17th century Highland pine rocking cradle made for the Earl of Seafield, and a classical portrait of a mother suckling an infant, among other antiques. This room is available to guests by special arrangement.
The Lodges are the field centre's accommodation. Purpose built to meet the needs of guests, they are heated, well insulated and carpeted. They all have twin bedrooms with private bathrooms and showers, a kitchen and lounge area. They are cosy, comfortable and close to the house, sited among the trees and gardens.
The Illicit Still is a cabin at the loch for fishermen and used as a summer house. Pipistrelle bats roost in its cladding and swallows and pied wagtails nest under the eaves. It is also the dock for the rowing boats. Guests fly fish for the stocked and wild brown trout up to 8lbs in weight! The dam was built by the Victorians to create a water supply for the estate.
The Dipping Platform is a docking station at the far end of the loch used for school children to dip their nets during freshwater studies. It broaches four different aquatic habitats: bottle sedge marsh, water lilies, broad-leaved pondweed, and beneath eared willow. It is excellent habitat for damselflies and dragonflies, of which the Highland Darter is a speciality. It is also rich in common toads, frogs and brown trout.
The Clava type of chambered cairns are all located within the Inverness area. They date from 2,000 BC and form the centre of a late Neolithic-early Bronze Age farming community. There are two types of tomb: the passage and the ring. Recent discoveries have found that the passage is aligned with the setting of the winter solstice sun. The ring cairn is very well preserved.
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