Technology-free holidays: four of the best Skiary Lodge Loch Hourn, Scotland One can't help feeling a little bit privileged staying at Skiary Lodge. Not because there's anything grand about it, at least, not in the conventional sense, but because of its uniqueness and for the short period it's open each year (April to October at most). Located on the shores of Loch Hourn, a wild fjord in the north-west Scottish Highlands, it was one of six cottages within a hamlet abandoned by its community of mackerel fishermen in the 1950s. This fisherman's cottage-turned-three-bedroom guesthouse, run for the past five years by twentysomethings Claire Holmes and Tom Everett, is now the only house still standing, having been restored in the 1980s by Tom's grandparents. A two-hour drive from Fort William, then a 30-minute walk or a 10-minute boat ride, the cottage is run as a wilderness retreat for up to six people, with no electricity or mobile signal. The house is simple but very comfortable and offers an unforgettable base from which to walk, climb, swim, seal-watch and generally de-stress, with home-cooked candlelit dinners and stargazing at night. From £89 per person (07748-162947; skiary.com).