The Macdonalds of Kinlochmoidart were a cadet branch of Clanranald, whose mainland stronghold was Castle Tioram, destroyed in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. In the 1740s, Donald Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart built a new classical house, a small hip-roofed three-bay and three-storey mansion-house, linked by straight screen walls to tiny pavilions. A plan of this unexecuted house exists.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart arrived at Loch nan Uamh on 25th July 1745, his first landing on the British Mainland. He stayed at Kinlochmoidart House from the 11th-17th of August 1745, before raising the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan on the 19th August. Subsequently, the House was burned in 1746, in reprisals by Cumberland's troops. The estate was forfeited and Macdonald imprisoned in Edinburgh. John Macdonald, Donald Macdonald's grandson, bought the estate back in 1785 and built a new house.
A plan of the policies c 1799 shows the late 18th/early19th century house in elevation and gives some detail of the late 18th century landscape. The drive to the house led from Kinlochmoidart Bridge eastwards, where it divided, one branch leading parallel to the River Moidart, passing a farm steading at the south point of the wooded Calf's Hill, before turning north-west to reach the house by the foot of Torran Darach and the Gardener's House. The other branch led around the edge of Calf' Hill and Mount Margaret. The extensive pleasure grounds lay to the north of the house, and were delimited by a circuit path, which enclosed Tom Soineach, planted with specimen trees. On the east side of the path was the kitchen garden, and as the path skirted the western side of Torran Darach, so it rejoined the main drive. Torran Darach was also part of the pleasure grounds, the entrance drive sweeping round its western foot past the Gardener's House. West of Tom Soineach, a natural rocky outcrop (quarry?) seems also to have been planted as pleasure grounds (Anon, 1799).
During the 19th century features commemorating the events of 1745 were incorporated into the landscape. The 'Seven Men of Moidart' are depicted, although not named, on the 1873 OS 6" and seem to be all that remained from a tree-lined field boundary existing by c 1799 (Anon, 1799). The seven beech trees are said to represent Prince Charles Edward Stewart's loyal companions – of whom Aeneas Macdonald, younger of Kinlochmoidart, was one. By 1873, a walk along the north perimeter of the grounds which had existed by the late 18th century, was named the 'Prince's Walk', and linked the Episcopal church designed by Alexander Ross of Inverness, and built (1857-60) with the house (1873, OS 6").
The principal approach to the house was along an avenue, which led off from the public road, west of Kinlochmoidart Bridge (1873, OS 6").
The Macdonalds sold the estate in 1882 to Robert Stewart, a businessman with interests in distilling. In 1884, he commissioned the Glaswegian architect William Leiper (1839-1916) to build a new house. Leiper's designs for Kinlochmoidart and its accompanying lodges, follow the spirit of Dalmore, Helensburgh built ten years previously for the Coupar family. The materials included imported red sandstone dressings from Ballochmyle, Ayrshire, and green roofing slates. The house plan was modern and up to date technology was incorporated, including plate-glass, plumbing and hydro-electricity.
The new house was built at the end of the avenue next to the old house, which was retained converted to stables and service accommodation. It was used as such until its demolition in 1971; the two houses remaining side by side for about 90 years. The West Lodge was built on the public road at the entrance to the avenue and the East Lodge was built on the drive around the foot of Torran Darach.
The House was principally used for house parties, the guests arriving for the sporting season by steam yacht from the Clyde. In August 1889, an advertisement in the 'Estates Exchange' referred to the 'comfortable and stylish shooting estate' which the Stewarts owned 'with every modern convenience'. John Stewart succeeded his father in 1909, and thereafter his son, General Robert Stewart, took over in 1935. The House remains in private ownership, having undergone a phase of restoration 1986-1996 and subdivision for five units of accommodation.