Glen Dye Cabins & Cottages
Glen Dye is a private estate offering holiday accommodation across a portfolio of carefully restored cabins and cottages, along with two Heartwood Saunas which offer guests a warm, welcoming sanctuary to enjoy after exploring the walking trails or outdoor activities to be enjoyed across the estate’s thousands of acres of forest and moorland.
Situated just on the Highland boundary fault, where the flat agricultural land that runs the whole way up the east side of Britain gives way to the Highlands, the Glen Dye Estate is overlooked by the dramatic granite tor of Clachnaben whose inspiring presence can be felt across the estate. The rugged expanse of trees and moorland at Glen Dye is regarded as one of the most beautiful private forests in Britain, though perhaps unusually for such a wilderness, it is also very accessible at just a half hour’s drive from Aberdeen.
The estate is run by Charlie and Caroline Gladstone who packed up their life in London nearly 30 years ago and headed north to take on the enormous task of renovating the beautiful, yet at that time, completely derelict, private estate in the Scottish Highlands which had been in Charlie’s family since the 1840s.
The couple, along with their growing family, spent years rescuing the Glen Dye Estate and turning it into a successful business that now allows them to share the magic of Glen Dye with the world.
When there were roofs on the houses and the fences and drains worked, we thought, what can we do to open the place up to other people with similar interests? And so we found our motivation to create amazing holiday experiences in this amazing location.” - Charlie Gladstone
Striving to create a new sense of luxury, the experiences offered at Glen Dye are outdoorsy and authentic with a strong focus on quality as well as connection with the elements. For Charlie, a day at Glen Dye is simply incomplete without an authentic wood-fired sauna to balance the crisp Highland climate and ice-cold river swims in the Dye.
“For me, having a sauna is an excellent punctuation mark at the end of the day. I find it unbelievably good for my mental state and for my general feeling of physical wellness. I think we’re all chasing feelings that make us feel good both physically and mentally and the sauna is surprisingly good at that. You can research the health benefits of sauna and there’s clearly data and anecdotes to support them but you don’t need to do that because the feeling you get after a sauna is enough proof on its own. For years and years I was a very keen long distance runner and I have given that up as i’ve got older. But the sauna gives me the kind of rush that running used to give me. I would be surprised if I didn't carry on doing it for the rest of my life.”
