Wednesday, December 23, 2015

On This Day 23 December 2015 - Boleskine House Fire

Although Jimmy Page sold the property years ago, the destruction of Boleskine House is still an ending to a chapter in history.

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (Press and Journal Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

Boleskine House is - or perhaps now we should say was -  south of Inverness, Scotland, overlooking Loch Ness.  The main house was constructed in the 1760s by Colonel Archibald Fraser as a hunting lodge. Today's fire is apparently not the first on that property. A kirk (church) on the property supposedly burned with a full congregation inside, killing all.

Aleister Crowley purchased the house just prior to the turn of the century (that would be 1899, not 1999), where he could conduct his rituals of black magic in seclusion. Crowley left Boleskine House in 1913 and Jimmy Page purchased it in 1970. By that time it had deteriorated to the point where it was uninhabitable. Jimmy Page had it restored but he never spent more than a few weeks in residence. He sold the house in 1992.

Boleskine House in better days
Boleskine House, rear courtyard

Edited 12/22/17:  Addition of post-fire photos by Mark Wallbank








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