A clutch of off-grid bothies combine staggering views and slow living with some of life’s simplest, and finest, luxuries

I still have my wedding nails on and the remnants of a spray tan are clinging to my limbs as my husband and I clamber inside a mud-spattered off-road buggy to go on our minimoon. Three days ago we were wrapped up in the whirling, joyful chaos of the biggest party of our lives, dancing with everyone we love and necking spicy margaritas. A night in an off-grid bothy is the steadying arm we need to find our way back to terra firma.

Well, steadyish. We bump along a rocky track flanked by green fields to get to our bothy, Uisge, one of three modest cabins on the 1,000-acre Inverlonan estate. This is storied land, cradled in Argyll’s Glen Lonan, home of sacred burial grounds and stone circles. No wonder it was a shoot location for Harvest, a film about a medieval farming community.

The bothies – reachable by foot, buggy or boat – defer to their ancient surroundings. Uisge (‘water’) sits quietly in the dip of a grassy hill overlooking the sullen shores of Loch Nell. Its gabled form, clad in timber and steel, resembles a traditional agricultural structure. Inside is an open-plan room with a kitchenette, dining and lounging areas, and a mezzanine bed. As for the bathroom? The shower is outside… and the loo is in a wooden hut up the hill.

It’s not uncomfortably monastic, though. The idea is that you will experience luxury; you just have to work for it. Yes, we must grind our own beans, but then we’re rewarded by proper coffee in Argyll Pottery mugs. Lighting the stove demands patience, but I’m happy to let my husband prod the kindling while I curl up on the leather chair beneath a Skyeskyns throw. The interiors are lovely; exposed plaster walls, bespoke tables and shelves hewn from local ash trees by the Oban-based craftsman Michael Acey. Windows on all sides cast a lens across the landscape, at night giving the sensation of being folded inside a blanket of stars.

Naturally, in a place of such astonishing natural beauty, you want to spend time outside. The bothy has fishing rods and there are kayaks propped up on a private beach a few minutes’ walk away. We decide on a gentle ramble in the forest before drizzly weather steers us through shimmering ferns and low-slung oak branches into the dry heat of Inverlonan’s wood-fired sauna. In a converted horsebox by the banks of the loch, its long views out to the rippling water unlock a well of peace no conventional spa could ever hope to match.

Later on, back at the bothy, a familiar rumbling signals that our buggy has returned. The driver is Tim Kensett, a chef once found in the kitchens at London’s River Café and the Fife Arms in Braemar. He now lives here on the estate, growing its produce and cooking for those who book his wild-dining experience.

He drives us to Inverlonan’s oldest building, a 500-yearold bothy. Inside, candles flicker in the nooks of its thick stone walls. The floor is cushioned with hay. It’s unspeakably romantic, not least because we have the place to ourselves. The ‘wild’ part comes from how the food is cooked: outdoors over an open flame in a partially sheltered lean-to kitchen. Tim wanders in and out, switching seamlessly between roles. He is chef, waiter, dishwasher. “There’s a vulnerability in that,” he smiles, “because if people don’t like it, there’s only one person in the firing line!”

I can’t imagine anyone finding fault. Our eight-course menu is easily my meal of the year. Paper-thin ribbons of herby courgette on a mound of tangy labneh. Butter flecked with allium salt, a blend of charred leeks, onions and garlic. Tender chunks of sirloin jostling with knobbly roasted oyster mushrooms and a tarragon salsa. Sweet blackened leeks and langoustines laced with capers and olives. Creamy rice pudding gleaming beneath a caramelised fennel crisp, and bright blackcurrant sorbet. Wow.

We could roll back to Uisge, but Tim kindly chauffeurs us. Fire lit, we chat into the wee hours. So much for a grounding experience; turns out we’re still on a high. Ah well. Earth can wait.

Visit the Inverlonan website | Follow Inverlonan on Instagram

Escape to Fern Cottage, a secluded boutique getaway on the Isle of Mull