A very detached home
If you want to drop by you’ll have to go by boat... or walk, writes Paul Drury
HAVING human company is all very well but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be on your own. Offering the chance of splendid isolation is the remote community of Doune on the Knoydart peninsula in the West Highlands.
How remote is it? Well, you can’t drive there and the fishing port of Mallaig lies 20 minutes away by sea in a fast boat.
Oh, and if you plan to walk there, the hike could take you 24 hours.
Penny Robinson has lived in Doune ‘on and off’ for 15 years. Her husband, Jamie, has been here most of his life.
She said: ‘People use the word “wilderness” quite lightly. It is on my doorstep.
‘I can walk out my door and go in any direction I like. I can climb a Munro if I want. It is dramatic, inspiring, fantastic.’
The detached cottage was built in 1997, using natural materials including cobbles from a Glasgow street, which allow the property to sit up proudly in the dramatic landscape.
The house has been finished to a high standard and has well laid out family accommodation, taking advantage of the spectacular views over the Sound of Sleat to Skye beyond.
Making extensive use of glass at the front of the property, it is highly energy efficient and has solar panels and a generator with battery bank.
There are four bedrooms and three public rooms. Worthy of special mention is the kitchen/ living/dining arrangement, which makes the most of the sensational panorama. Red deer often complete the view from the conservatory. Although the peninsula is off grid, the community has 4G mobile phone connection, landline connection and internet is via a microwave link to Skye as part of the Loch Hourn broadband co-operative.
With the longest day of the year not far off, Mrs Robinson said: ‘We usually see the sun set over Rum but, at midsummer, it drops straight opposite us, behind the Cuillins on Skye. On that day, you don’t lose the glow. Then the sun’s back up again.’
The lifestyle is nothing like you would encounter in a city. Her husband is an engineer, installing solar and hydro-power systems in remote areas up the West Coast. But he has other strings to his bow – teaching sailing and building boats.
Mrs Robinson tends the garden and keeps chickens – but also teaches a little and has even used her home as a ‘pop-up’ restaurant.
What of the isolation? Does it get scary? ‘We really enjoy it,’ she replied. ‘It brings the freedom to live how you want to live without it affecting anyone else – or anyone else affecting you.’
Offers over £385,000 to Phiddy Robertson. Tel 01463 245 369 or email inverness@galbraithgroup.com.