Weekend Away with Abbey Holidays in Scotland

Inside the Highland Club

The Highland Club is a historical building, it’s inside Fort Augustus, which was a fort and a monastery previously. This Grade A listed building has a massive grounds that overlooks the water. The grounds themselves are absolutely massive. Upon arrival, each person gets a tour, so that you know where everything is; which is very helpful. Our tour guide was fantastic, giving us a little bit of history and a little bit of humor. The hallways themselves are massive, there is a mall sitting area full of different broachers which show stuff to do nearby. This leads down another long, decorative hallway that wraps around a court yard. The court yard actually has giant Chess set up in it, as well as a crochet set nearby that you can use there.

There is a massive hall that has a display of Fort Augustus along along with a table tennis table. This leads to the spa. You do need to pre-book to use the swimming pool and spa, which does cost a booking fee, but it’s a very interesting spa setup. The pool itself is a small chapel pool, something that feels extremely unique, and they have both a dry and wet sauna. When we went, the wet sauna was under repair, but both overlook the pool. The number of people that can use this area at once are on the smaller side, but it all feels quite intimate. There are lockers and changing rooms in this area as well.

Another room that you can use and explore inside The Highland Club is a sort of gentleman’s club room. By this, I mean it’s a room with pool tables, billiards tables, books, Chess sets, and other games along with big lounge chairs. It’s a neat place to spend the evening, having a few drinks with friends. We saw a few different young adults using these areas during our stay, but as this place is so massive, we rarely saw people traveling through the building itself.

We got the chance to stay in a family apartment at The Highland Club, which is perfect for spending time with your family. Abbey Holidays rents out several different apartments and this one is so spacious and well decorated. This trip would have been too long for our children to have been able to comfortable come on at this time, so we had made the choice to come as a couples trip, however the family accommodation is very nice. Our apartment had an entry way that lead directly into the master bedroom, which had it’s own en-suite with both a shower and a separate bathtub. This room was a very generous size. There was a separate children’s bedroom with beds and a wardrobe, as well as a family bathroom with a tub. There was a bookshelf full of books in the hallway too. The main living space was open planned – a fully stocked kitchen with a living room attached. There are movies and games in the living room and everything you’d need in the kitchen. The Highland Club is a self-catering establishment, so having a kitchen that has oil, salt, pepper, milk, cutlery, dishes and everything else you need to cater in your kitchen is fantastic to see.

As two people that planned on working in our mornings, we are happy to report that the internet was fantastic. We had our own router in our apartment, which worked great and provided enough internet for me to livestream into a conference in Amsterdam to give a talk without having any difficulties. We have been to a lot of holiday places that have promised internet and not delivered, so it was great to have perfect internet! We also got robes and slippers in our accommodation, for use in the spa if we wanted.

What did we do at Fort Augustus

While we were staying at The Highland Club, we spent a lot of evenings walking around the little town. There are plenty of small shops that sell lots of tourist items, including a glass-blowing shop where you can watch someone blow glass! We saw Highland Cows in the area and took a cruise down Loch Ness, which even included history on the building we were staying in. There is plenty to do in the area and if you bring a car (which we did) you can even travel a little bit further out during your stay and visit more historical places. There were plenty of other tourists going on cruises and exploring the area too, so it’s a great way to connect with nature and history.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!