Shocking news from Scotland: Boleskine House in flames…
A SCOTTISH manor once owned by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and occultist Aleister Crowley has been largely destroyed by a fire.
Boleskine House, on the banks of Loch Ness near Foyers in the Highlands, is still ablaze and fire crews have been unable to get inside the building to check for casualties.
About 60 per cent of the building had been destroyed by the time fire crews arrived shortly after 1:40pm on Wednesday.
Two appliances were initially sent to the scene, one from Foyers and another from Inverness.
Further pumps were later sent from Inverness and Beauly, along with a water carrier from Inverness, a pump from Dingwall and an incident support unit from Inverness.
Crews continued their efforts on the west wing of the building while firefighters in breathing apparatus are using four main jets to tackle the blaze.Crowley, who died in 1947 aged 73, was an occultist, mystic and magician known as “the Great Beast” and ‘’the wickedest man in the world’’.
He was a sexually liberated recreational drug-taker long before the 1960s social revolution and followed a ‘’Do what thou wilt’’ philosophy.
Interest in his teachings grew in the 1960s and rock stars such as Jimmy Page were influenced by his ideas.
Page bought the house at the height of Led Zeppelin’s fame in 1970 as a restoration project and a base for songwriting, but spent little time there and eventually sold it in 1992.
It has since been used as a private residence and a guest house, and was put up for sale in 2009 for £176,000.
Source: Bokeskine House, former home of Jimmy Page, destroyed by fire – The Scotsman
The thoughts of LAShTAL.COM and its members are with the owners of the House.
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I fear that the current owner – rather than rebuild – will decide to demolish the remaining structure and choose to build some ghastly new modern structure; possibly even dividing the current grounds into two parts to maximise return on investment. Hope I’m wrong……
Latest news from the emergency services: ‘Scottish Fire and Rescue later established that there was no-one in the house at the time of the fire and there are no casualties.’
“It has since been used as a private residence and a guest house, and was put up for sale in 2009 for £176,000.”
When did the current owners of the house buy it?
Or, when did the house stop being up for sale after it was put up for sale in 2009?
The ‘for sale in 2009’ error is often repeated. For more details of what actually was sold that year, see http://www.lashtal.com/1130-old-news/
According to those details, Boleskine House was not for sale in 2009.
Do anyone know in what year the current owners of the house bought it?
The BBC article published 23 December 2015, and titled Firefighters called to historic Boleskine House on Loch Ness, in the following internet link,contains more photographs of the destruction caused by the fire: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35171061
Horrible horrible news. Glad that no one was inside but it’s a major loss for history…
Over the years I remember some other big fires in Britain, Windsor Castle and the Cutty Sark spring to mind, where the damage was colossal but nowadays one would never guess there had even been a fire. So if there was enough money available then there is no reason that the house could not be made as good as new! But it takes a lot of money, especially where demolition is an alternative.
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