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Aleister Crowley is one of the most infamous figures in British history. During his early twentieth century heyday the occultist and seeker after esoteric truths was dubbed “the most evil man in Britain” by the popular press, denounced as a Satanist and black magician.

Throughout his adult life, Crowley was fascinated by magic. At one point he came into possession of a book called “Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage,” written in the Middle Ages by someone calling himself Abraham the Jew. According to the book, each person had a Holy Guardian Angel assigned to them at birth and the text provided instructions on how this spirit could be contacted. Once the sequence of ceremonies, known as the Abramelin operation, had been performed successfully, the Angel would impart magical wisdom to its invoker, so it was said.

Boleskine House

The method described in the book involved a long process of ritual and meditation which was to continue for many months. Location was crucial, said the author. Crowley was determined to complete the ritual and scoured the face of Britain looking for the ideal place. At last, he thought he had found it in Boleskine House, located near Inverness in Scotland, on the shores of Loch Ness. He bought the building, an eighteenth century mansion, in 1899. Crowley later said he had picked Boleskine “for its loneliness” and that it was “already the centre of a thousand legends.” Rumours ran that it had been built on the site of a church where the congregation had once burned to death while attending Mass. No doubt this thought appealed to Crowley who had rebelled against a strict Christian upbringing.

Stories of strange goings-on during Crowley’s residence at Boleskine House are legion. There are tales of people dying or mysteriously disappearing, even of a butcher who chopped his own hand off after receiving a meat order from Crowley which had been inadvertently scrawled on the back of a piece of paper containing a spell. Part of the Abramelin ritual involves summoning a number of demons and subduing them. Crowley believed some of these demons had run amok locally, “terrifying the natives.” The local people learned to steer clear of Boleskine, taking lengthy detours in order to avoid it.

Note: The area has a history of strange happenings long before Aleister Crowley moved in. The parish of Boleskine was formed in the 13th Century. A Kirk and graveyard were built in the parish around this time. A succession of Ministers ran Boleskine Parish and would travel the area on horseback or on foot in all weather conditions. Minister Thomas Houston (1648–1705) was said to have had the task of hastily laying animated corpses back in their graves after a devious local wizard had raised the dead in Boleskine graveyard. - wikipedia

Crowley founded a religion, or system of magic, depending on your perspective, known as Thelema. The central tenet of Thelema is embodied in Crowley’s dictum “Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law.” Though it is not well known, there are still practitioners of Thelema in the world today. They regard Crowley as the Father of their faith and Boleskine House as the kiblah, or focal point, of the faith’s magical energies. The building has something of the same significance to Thelemites that Mecca has to Muslims.

Note:

According to Crowley, in his book The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, in order to perform the operations "the first essential is a house in a more or less secluded situation. There should be a door opening to the north from the room of which you make your oratory. Outside this door, you construct a terrace covered with fine river sand. This ends in a 'lodge' where the spirits may congregate."

The purpose of this ritual is to invoke one's Guardian Angel.

It requires at least 6 months of preparation, celibacy and abstinence from alcohol. However, it also includes the summoning of the 12 Kings and Dukes of Hell, to bind them and remove their negative influences from the magician's life. Whilst Crowley was in the process of performing the lengthy ritual, he was called to Paris by the leader of the Golden Dawn. According to legend, he never banished the demons he had summoned, leading to strange happenings occurring in and around Boleskine House.

Crowley became infamous for stories of conducting black magic and various other rituals while residing at the house; one of his pseudonyms was "Lord Boleskine". His lodge keeper, Hugh Gillies, suffered a number of personal tragedies, including the loss of two children. Crowley later claimed that his experiments with black magic had simply got out of hand.

Crowley described the house as a "long low building. I set apart the south-western half for my work. The largest room has a bow window and here I made my door and constructed the terrace and lodge. Inside the room I set up my oratory proper. This was a wooden structure, lined in part with the big mirrors which I brought from London."

After the First World War, Hollywood actor George Raft was involved in a scandal selling shares for a pig farm supposedly built on the grounds of Boleskine—except the farm did not exist. After the Second World War the house was owned by a Major Edward Grant. In 1965, Grant committed suicide in Crowley's bedroom with a shotgun.

After this a newly married couple moved into the house. The wife was blind, and after a month the man walked out, leaving the woman wandering around unable to see. In 1969 Kenneth Anger, an experimental filmmaker with an interest in the occult, learned that the house was on the market and rented it for a few months. - wikipedia

After Crowley eventually sold Boleskine House, it retained its spiritual significance to practitioners of the Thelemic faith. After his departure, the building fell into decay, though in the 1970s it was bought and restored by the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist and reputed Crowley obsessive, Jimmy Page. Boleskine House even featured in the Led Zeppelin video The Song Remains the Same. In the 1990s, the building was sold again and again.

At approximately 1:40 pm on 23 December 2015, a motorist on the A82 road reported flames and smoke coming from Boleskine House. When fire crews attended, it is estimated up to 60 per cent of the building had already been incinerated, with flames rising up to 20 feet (6 m) high. The firefighters concentrated on the west wing of the house, as the rest of the building had been severely damaged.

The owner's partner and daughter had gone shopping and returned to find the house ablaze. The fire was thought to have started in the kitchen, however nobody was believed to be in the house at the time of the fire and there were no casualties

The interior of the house was almost totally destroyed by the fires. Part of the roof and the outer walls survive, but the former owner, Mrs. MacGillivray, has said that since the extent of the damage is so bad it "is unlikely it will ever be rebuilt unless there is someone out there with an interest in the occult wanting to spend a lot of money."[30] The ruins and 22 acres of land were put on the market for £500,000 in April 2019.[36] They are now owned by the Boleskine House Foundation SCIO which will restore the house and gardens to their original form and then open the estate to the public. The website with plans for the project is here - https://www.boleskinehouse.org.

A further fire was started on 31 July 2019 in two buildings on the estate at the same time in a suspected arson. The police are currently appealing to the public for any information on those involved. The fire destroyed the remainder of what was left inside Boleskine House and as of December 2019 work is underway to clear the fire damaged material and prepare the building for a new roof. - wikipedia

Main data: http://www.spookystuff.co.uk/BoleskineHouse.html

Inserts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleskine_House