Boleskine House, situated on the south-east side of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, was built in the 18th century as a hunting lodge. Its peaceful setting belies the sinister reputation it later gained through its associations with the occultist Aleister Crowley, who owned the property from 1899 to 1913. Crowley performed elaborate magical rituals at Boleskine, claiming the house was uniquely suited to his practices, and rumours spread of strange happenings and dark energies linked to his experiments.
Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, a collector of Crowley memorabilia, had read a lot about Crowley and was fascinated by his ideas. When Page bought the house in 1970, it was in a state of decay, but he felt it would provide a good atmosphere in which to write songs. However, after arranging for the house to be restored, he spent little time at Boleskine, leaving it in the care of his friend Malcolm Dent.
Although Jimmy Page never spent any great length of time there, he did everything he could to return the house to how it would have looked during Crowley’s ownership. For example, he commissioned artist Charles Pace to paint Crowley-esque murals on the walls, based on the murals in Crowley’s Abbey of Thelema in Sicily, which had been discovered by Kenneth Anger in 1955.
Jimmy Page put the house on the market for £250,000 in 1991, and it was purchased by Ronald and Annette MacGillivray in 1992.
ADDRESS:
Boleskine House, General Wade’s Military Rd, Inverness IV2 6XT, Great Britain
Back to Inverness.