Early Times

The whole of the Ben Damph Estate lies in the parish of Applecross (a'chomraich in gaelic) and thus in former times was part of the lands of the ancient Abbey of Applecross, founded by St Malruba (Maol Rubha) in 673 A.D. Some place names on the estate reflect the fact that they were on the edge of this eclesiastical property. For long, the titular Abbot of Applecrcross was drawn from the clan Anrias, the ancient Rosses. Following their fall from grace in the fifteenth century the parish fell into the hands of the nearly related clan Coinnich, the MacKenzies. Indeed the MacKenzies of Applecross held most of the parish until the nineteenth century. Perhaps not surprisingly the principal surname in the area is MacKenzie, though there are many MacDonalds along the North shore of Loch Torridon, where approaching Gairloch Parish.

The Annat Skull

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Annat ( the surviving village of the estate, and former home of the famous Annat skull) was constantly harried by the MacLeod of Rassay. Many of the place names reflect this period of strife. The Annat skull was that of an unfortunate woman called Grant who, in the eighteenth century, as a suicide was not permitted burial in sanctified ground and was therefore buried outside, but close to the wall of the old burial ground. The skull came up to the surface many times and eventually became famous throughout the Celtic world as the instrument in a cure for epilepsy. It was necessary to drink water from a particular spring out of the skull at the same time performing a prescribed walk accompanied by certain incantations. Though seeming somewhat strange today, apparently it never failed to work.

The Victorian Era

In the latter half of the nineteenth century the the Earl of Lovelace (4th) purchased the Ben Damph Estate from the Duke of Leeds, at that time the proprietor of Applecross, and built Ben Damph House ( now the Loch Torridon Hotel ). The present Earl of Lovelace (6th) lives in Torridon House, his father having bought the Torridon Estate in about 1950.

As well as building the Ben Damph House and several other fine houses on the Ben Damph Estate the Earl set about building the splendid network of stone paths which cross and recross the whole estate. These paths are superbly engineered and unsurpassed in the Highlands. Path building ceased at the outbreak of war in 1914 and was never resumed.

The 20th Century

In the early 1960s Ben Damph House was converted into a hotel and managed by the Lovelace family, who moved into Torridon House.

Following the death of the 5th Earl the now Loch Torridon Hotel and the Ben Damph Estate were sold to Major Braithwaite who later sold the hotel back to the Countess of Lovelace and the estate to a Dutchman, Mr Katz.

The present proprietors purchased the estate from Mr Katz in 1983. The Loch Torridon Hotel now belongs to Mr & Mrs David Gregory and family.