The Fraser parish of Boleskine had a graveyard before it had a manor. A kirk and burial ground rose here in the 13th century, ministered to by men like Thomas Houston, who served from 1648 to 1705 and whose duties—according to local legend—included laying corpses back in their graves after a wizard in the area kept raising them. Colonel Archibald Fraser built the house on the site of that kirk around the late 18th century, and he chose the location deliberately: it sat in the middle of Simon Fraser of Lovat's land, and Colonel Archibald wanted to needle his neighbour over Lovat's Hanoverian sympathies during the 1745 Jacobite rising. The original was a single-floor hunting lodge with four bedrooms, a servants' attic above the kitchen, a drawing room, a library, and—running underground from the house to the graveyard—a tunnel.

Aleister Crowley bought Boleskine in 1899. The English occultist needed a remote location for the Abramelin operation, a six-month ceremonial magic working that demanded an isolated house with specific north-south orientation and access to a beach—Boleskine offered all three. His tenure became infamous for stories that may or may not be true: black magic rituals, summoned entities, and the kind of misfortune that follows whether you believe in it or not. His lodge keeper Hugh Gillies lost two children. A blind newlywed wife was abandoned by her husband after a month and left wandering. A succession of later occupants reported chairs that moved themselves and doors that slammed without cause. Whether visitors brought the unease with them or found it waiting is the kind of question Boleskine has always invited.

Led Zeppelin's guitarist bought the place in 1970. He had read Crowley extensively—'was fascinated by his ideas,' as he later put it—and collected Crowley memorabilia with the same intensity he brought to everything else. The house was decaying when Page took possession, but he believed the atmosphere would be good for writing. In practice, he spent little time there. His friend Malcolm Dent ran the place for two decades, finding it a wreck with a partially missing roof and grounds gone wild. Dent stayed despite the rolling carpets and slamming doors. The fantasy sequence in Led Zeppelin's 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same was shot on the property. Page sold in 1992. A Dutch couple turned it back into a private holiday home, and the new owners hated any reference to Crowley.

The first fire came in December 2015 while the owner's business partner and daughter were out shopping; they returned to find the house ablaze. The second, in July 2019, was set deliberately and simultaneously in two estate buildings—the police investigation is still open. The Boleskine House Foundation, a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation, took over the property that same year. Their restoration uses traditional building techniques and materials to preserve historic integrity, with final costs projected between 1.2 and 1.5 million pounds. The National Lottery Heritage Fund contributed 250,000 pounds in 2024. LDN Architects in Inverness, conservation accredited, are designing the interior reimagining of Jacobean, Georgian, and Victorian rooms. Simpson Builders, the local firm, are overseeing the project. Even mid-restoration, the foundation has earned Trip Advisor's Travelers' Choice Award two years running.

Boleskine sits 21 miles south of Inverness, on the lochside opposite Meall Fuar-mhonaidh and roughly midway between Foyers and Inverfarigaig. The graveyard remains. So does the tunnel between graveyard and house, mentioned in nearly every surviving description of the estate. W. Somerset Maugham used Boleskine as 'Skene' in his 1908 novel The Magician—a portrait Crowley considered plagiarism, prompting him to publish a reply in Vanity Fair under the name Oliver Haddo, a character Maugham had based on him. Neil Spring's 2019 novel The Burning House revisits the property's reputation. The foundation plans pre-arranged public visits during restoration and a permanent opening in 2026.