Boleskine House

Background

Boleskine House is 21 miles (34 km) south of Inverness, on the opposite side of Loch Ness from the Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, and halfway between the villages of Foyers and Inverfarigaig.

The current house was constructed in the 1760s by Colonel Archibald Fraser as a hunting lodge. The original hunting lodge was expanded continuously by the Fraser family until c.1830. All the rooms were situated on one floor, with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge, drawing room, and a library.

Allegedly the house was built on the site of a 10th-century Scottish kirk. According to legend, the kirk caught fire during congregation, killing all inside. The house was built on a hillside above a graveyard, which had acquired a reputation for unusual activities. There is even a tunnel linking the house to the graveyard. Furthermore, according to previous owners, the house has "bad vibes". Apparently the executed head of Lord Lovat can be heard rolling around on the floor. This fuelled local legend even before Crowley moved into the house.

Aleister Crowley's ownership (1899-1913)

Crowley purchased Boleskine House from the Fraser family in 1899. The House at that time was known as the Manor of Boleskine and Abertarff after the name of the local parish. Crowley believed the location was ideal to sequester himself to perform a series of operations known as the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, taken from a grimoire called The Book of Abramelin. According to Crowley, in his book The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, in order to perform the operations "the first essential is a house in a more or less secluded situation. There should be a door opening to the north from the room of which you make your oratory. Outside this door, you construct a terrace covered with fine river sand. This ends in a 'lodge' where the spirits may congregate." The purpose of this ritual is to invoke one's Guardian Angel. It requires at least 6 months of preparation, celibacy and abstinence from alcohol. However, it also includes the summoning of the 12 Kings and Dukes of Hell, to bind them and remove their negative influences from the magician's life. Whilst Crowley was in the process of performing the lengthy ritual, he was called to Paris by the leader of the Golden Dawn. According to legend,he never banished the demons he had summoned, leading to strange happenings occurring in and around Boleskine House.

Crowley became infamous for stories of conducting black magic and various other rituals while residing at the house; one of his pseudonyms was "Lord Boleskine". His lodge keeper, Hugh Gillies, suffered a number of personal tragedies, including the loss of two children. Crowley later claimed that his experiments with black magic had simply got out of hand. Crowley described the house as a "long low building. I set apart the south-western half for my work. The largest room has a bow window and here I made my door and constructed the terrace and lodge. Inside the room I set up my oratory proper. This was a wooden structure, lined in part with the big mirrors which I brought from London."

He left the property in 1913, moving to a modest cottage for sometime in Dennyloanhead near Falkirk.

1913-1970

Not a lot is known about Boleskine house during this period. It is known that the house was owned by a Major Edward Grant. In 1965, Grant committed suicide in Crowley's bedroom with a shotgun. The house fell into disrepair after this.

Jimmy Page's ownership (1970-1992)

Page, a collector of Crowley memorabilia who "had read a lot of Crowley and ... was fascinated by his ideas", purchased the property in 1970. At the time it was in a state of decay, but he felt it would be a good atmosphere in which to write songs. However, after arranging for the house to be restored he spent little time at Boleskine, leaving things in the care of his friend Malcolm Dent (1944-2011), who lived there with his family.

MacGillivray family (1992-2002)

The house was put on the market for £250,000 in 1991. It was purchased by Ronald and Annette MacGillivray in 1992. According to Mrs. MacGillivray, when they bought the house it was in a very bad state. The MacGillivray's “spent a lot of money stripping it back to the bare walls and re-roofing it. It had four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a huge drawing room, dining room, library and various smaller rooms". The house was then converted into a hotel.

Ronald MacGillivray died in 2002. Mr. MacGillivray was said to hate any reference to the house's dark past when it was home to Crowley. When asked whether she had experienced any mysterious occurrences at Boleskine House, Mrs MacGillivray states that she experienced "absolutely none. I am a non-believer and didn’t listen to all that rubbish. We had a great time there."

Private ownership (2002-2015)

Following Ronald MacGillivray's death, Boleskine House was put up for sale again. The new Dutch owners, who have remained anonymous, converted the house back into a private residence and used it as a holiday home.

In 2009, a 1.9-acre plot on the former estate was put on the market for £176,000 with plans to build a three-bedroom log house. The sale also included 140 ft of foreshore on Loch Ness.

Conflagration (2015)

At approximately 1:40pm on 23 December 2015, a motorist on the A82 road reported flames and smoke coming from Boleskine House. When fire crews attended, it is estimated up to 60 percent of the building had already been incinerated, with flames rising up to 20 ft high. The firefighters concentrated on the west wing of the house, as the rest of the building had been severely damaged.

The owner's partner and daughter had gone shopping and returned to find the house ablaze. The fire was thought to have started in the kitchen, however nobody was believed to be in the house at the time of the fire and there were no casualties.

Today

It is unclear how much of Boleskine House remains since the fire, although the former owner, Mrs. MacGillivray said that since the extent of the damage is so bad it "is unlikely it will ever be rebuilt unless there is someone out there with an interest in the occult wanting to spend a lot of money." It is believed that the house was due to go on the market.

Boleskine House is a Category B listed building, as is the adjacent stables and gate lodge.

In literature

Boleskine House is described and recognisable in W. Somerset Maugham's The Magician where it is called "Skene". Crowley considered Maugham's book to be plagiarism and wrote an article under the name of Oliver Haddo (the name of a character taken from Maugham's book) for Vanity Fair as a witty riposte. (For details, see Crowley's autobiography, Confessions, listed above.)