Highfield Holidays

Highfield’s lodges sit on the hill above Kiel Crofts, a scattered township on the Benderloch peninsula about eight miles north of Oban. The peninsula juts out between Loch Etive to the south and Loch Creran to the north; from the higher ground here you look west across the Lynn of Lorn, the broad sound that separates the mainland from the long, thin limestone island of Lismore, and on a clear evening the sun sets over the Morvern hills beyond.

Lismore itself is one of the more rewarding day-trip islands from Oban: ten miles long, two miles wide at most, with a passenger ferry from Port Appin (a fifteen-minute drive north from Benderloch) crossing in ten minutes. The island has a single circuit road, a heritage centre, a small café, and the medieval cathedral of St Moluag’s at Clachan in the centre of the island. Bicycles travel on the Port Appin ferry; for a car you take the longer CalMac sailing from Oban to Achnacroish.

Benderloch itself has a small shop and a post office at Kiel Crofts, with the larger range of food and supplies in Oban. The white-sand arc of Tralee Bay is a few minutes’ walk down the hill from the lodges. The Caledonia Way long-distance cycle route runs through the village.

Current rates, lodge layouts, and booking at the Highfield Holidays website.