Alladale, the star of BBC Natural World show "A Moose in the Glen" and BBC series "The Real Monarch of the Glen", is a stunning remote country lodge in 23,000 acres of prime Scottish Highlands.

A flight to Inverness is followed by a scenic drive one hour north, hugging the dramatic coastline and taking in sights such as the Firth of Dornoch and Bonar Bridge. Eventually you turn inland down meandering lanes and deeper into Highland territory before you leave the road on an unsealed track and spot a Victorian shooting lodge with gabled exteriors and sweeping front lawns.

Smart teak garden furniture and hydrangea-lined front steps hint at the good taste of the interiors within. Inside, the lodge is traditional Scottish Highlands, with a stylish, updated twist.

It is decorated throughout in Laura Ashley fabrics, sofas and furniture – but not Laura Ashley chintz, rather contemporary Laura Ashley, with lushly dark walls in inky midnight blues and ruby reds complemented by tartan fabrics, mahogany furniture and battered leather armchairs. Massive framed hunting and shooting prints, stag’s heads and authentic Highlands paraphernalia complete the look.

The lodge opened in 2003, and this summer Alladale added two new cottages to its offering. These are new-builds, sympathetically designed on the outside to mirror humble shepherds’ dwellings, and located further down the glen from the main lodge. Called Ghillie’s Rest and Eagle’s Crag, each is interior designed by an ex-Mulberry designer and done out very ‘Highland chic’, combining cutting edge contemporary with traditional Scottish style.

There are gorgeous cashmere throws, tweed curtains and tartan cushions from local Highlands designer Anta as well as underfloor heating, 50” TV screens and iPod docking stations. You can also find double ended Fired Earth baths, funky leather beanbags and Andrew Martin sofas.

The cottages are more chic and modern than the main lodge, as well as being more private, but a little less atmospheric. Books and magazines and more knick-knacks are needed, but we were among the first guests to stay in them.

The idea is that the lodge, which sleeps 14, offers full-board on an exclusive basis to its guests in a traditional house party way, while the cottages, which each sleep four in two bedrooms, offer a more flexible, self-catering set-up. Guests arrive to fully stocked fridges stuffed with local produce from wild boar pies to venison sausages and fresh local trout, but evening meals can be cooked and brought down from the main lodge if required.

As well as all this gorgeous accommodation, there is the five-star outdoors. Alladale boasts two glens, ten highland lochs and a river, as well as the 23,000 acres of dramatic landscape. As far as the eye can see, the land belongs to Alladale, with no-one roaming across it apart from guests of the lodge and cottages.

It is a hugely ambitious project – to reforest the glen and to create a giant eco reserve. Paul Lister, the owner, wants to reintroduce the glen’s natural species, including wolves and bears. Already wild boar and moose have been brought back, while 150,000 indigenous trees ranging from Caledonian pines to birch, willows, aspen, mountain ash and oak, have been planted in the past two years and another 250,000 are planned for the next three years.

On our first evening we were taken on a Wilderness Safari in a battered Land Rover, offering sneak sightings of wild boar and one of the two moose in residence. The next morning we went on a pony trek on some reassuringly benign Highland ponies and tried our hand at fly-fishing in the Upper Carron, the river which runs through the main glen.

I felt very Brad Pitt as I flicked my rod and tossed the line stylishly into the swirling waters in search of brown trout. Sadly, nothing was biting that day, and we were thwarted by torrential rain that came from nowhere. We took shelter in a badger hide where we lunched on a hamper of sandwiches, Mars Bars and flasks of steaming tea and coffee while huddling round a tiny wood burner stuffed with sweet-smelling heather.

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