The look of delight on her face is clear to see.
Emma Jackson may be based in Dorset but her heart is in the Highlands where she owns a cottage overlooking one of the areas’s most scenic rivers, Loch Lochy.
Earlier this month, while fishing on the river, she caught a whopper of a salmon, measuring more than three feet long and weighing in at more than 20lbs. What makes the experience all the more memorable is that Emma, one of the contestants from Ben Fogle’s reality television fishing show, Earth’s Wildest Waters: The Big Fish, owns this particular share of the river.
Mrs Jackson, who was given her share in the River Lochy ownership by her father, said: “It is like a second home for me. I smile all the time I am there and I cry when I leave. It truly is a special, spiritual place.
“All members of the association are fully committed to maintaining and improving the river and a tremendous amount of love, care and work has been invested in its management over the years. It is a very inspirational group of people and the fishing has been vastly improved as a result of their work.”
Her cottage would be a dream catch for the committed fisherman, especially if he or she has a budget of more than £410,000.
Situated close to the south bank of the river, Willow Cottage is a very pretty traditional two storey stone-built cottage with a fine outlook to the north and south. It has been renovated in recent years and the kitchen and bathroom have contemporary fittings, while the timber panelled sitting room and coombed first floor bedroom ceilings ensure that the traditional charm of the cottage has not been lost.
With its triple aspect fenestration and open fireplace, the sitting room is a particularly comfortable room in which to reflect on the day’s catch – or the one that got away.
The cottage sits within a large enclosed garden which is laid down to lawn for ease of management but has potential to be embellished. It includes ample space for several cars to park.
There is also a substantial outbuilding/workshop used for storage for garden machinery and fishing equipment. In addition to being used by the owner, the cottage is let to salmon fisherman during the season with very few unlet weeks between May and early October each year.
Situated some six miles from Fort William, Lot One, Willow Cottage, is for sale at offers over £250,000 and lot two, the 1/16th share in the ownership of the majority of the River Lochy system, is for sale at offers over £160,000. They are for sale as a whole for offers over £410,000.
Robert McCulloch from selling agent, Strutt and Parker, said: “This is a lotted sale with, unusually, each lot owned by a different person. The combined sale offers the opportunity to vendors to buy a riverside cottage with a share in the River Lochy Association which ensures at least two weeks’ fishing at nominal cost each year.
“The River Lochy is, I think, the prettiest in the west Highlands and one of the best in Scotland. The river system, one of Scotland’s most improved salmon and sea-trout systems, provides fly fishing of the highest quality in glorious and dramatic surroundings and this is a fantastic opportunity for a passionate fisherman or fisherwoman.”
The 7.6miles of double bank salmon and sea-trout fishing on the river comprises four private beats and two let beats with a 10-year average of 430 salmon/grilse and 126 sea-trout. The share in the River Lochy system also includes fishing on the feeder rivers, the River Roy and the River Spean, as well as an established hatchery and a successful smolt-rearing business, the largest in the UK.
Contact: Strutt and Parker on 0131 226 2500.
