KEYS TO KNOW
Kirsty Mcluckie discovers how a self-build family home makes the most of its impressive countryside setting
When Rod and Alison Jackson first spotted the site, near Aberlour in Moray, where they were to build their new home, it was little more than a field.
Alison says: “There was outline planning permission for a much smaller house but the plot had no services so we were really starting from scratch.”
Looking at the house today, however, it isn’t difficult to see the attraction of the location.
Completed in 2009, Woodside sits in an elevated setting and commands spectacular views over Ben Rinnes and the Spey Valley.
The design of the building was very much informed by its location and makes the best of the views and the light.
Alison says: “We gave our architect – Stephen Gauld at Wittets Architects based in Elgin – a rough outline that Rod had drawn and that was what he worked from, adapting it to make sure we got what we wanted and that it all worked.”
Rod is originally from Dorset while Alison grew up in the Scottish Borders. At the time that they embarked on the Woodside project, they were living in Rothes, ten miles south of Elgin, with their four young children, Fleur, Aimee, Zoe, and Sam, now aged between 14 and 18.
Alison says: “We had actually built our last house and Rod has completed other self-builds so we weren’t new to the process. I think we just were looking to create a lovely place to bring up the children.”
Previous experience is certainly helpful when building your own home. The adage is that you tend to get it right on the third attempt, and Alison certainly believes that in Woodside they got exactly what they had envisaged.
She says: “It was by no means a simple plan. It is an x-shaped building so Rod likened the project to building four different houses and then linking them up in the middle. But it is that design which created such an open centre space.”
The design plays with ceiling heights, copious glazing and delineates different areas with glass balustrades and varying floor levels to maintain the incredibly open and light feeling throughout.
One whole wing of the “x”, containing the sitting room, dining room and central hall is double height with spectacular interior oak detailing.
Apart from the brickwork foundation and a feature stone wall at the front door the house is entirely made of wood. Outside it is clad in Siberian larch with is hard-wearing and beautiful and designed to fade to a silvery grey to fit in with the landscape.
Alison says that among their musthaves was plenty of space for entertaining: “You need it if you start with four children, never mind their friends, plus grandparents coming to stay.”
The public spaces are big enough for a crowd, but the house does not feel cavernous.
Alison says: “It is big at seven bedrooms, but with the master bedroom, each of the kids having a bedroom and a guest room, there really is only one left over that is used as overflow.”
There is room for everyone to have their own space although Alison says they are never too far from one another. “I have a bell that I ring at mealtimes to summon them all down.”
The sitting room is perhaps the most spectacular spot in the house with 180-degree views from Ben Rinnes right round to the Macallan distillery in the valley below. Doors lead to a deck, bordered on the other side by the dining kitchen. The outside space is a sheltered, sunny spot which acts as another room in good weather.
Another high point is the master bedroom suite on the first floor. Taking up another wing, it has its own triple-aspect sun room, complete with incredible views.
Outside, the four acres were another blank canvas. Rod was always a keen gardener and Alison says she became keener as they went along, both of them developing it into the mature space that really compliments the house.
The acre and a half immediately round the house is garden with lawn but there is another acre of paddock which is fenced as the family raised orphaned lambs, although it would work equally well for a pony. There are mature trees and a vegetable plot plus an orchard with apple, pear, plums and cherry and apricot trees. The views over the Spey Valley from its elevated position are spectacular. Open-plan public spaces including a sitting room, dining room, dining kitchen and family room.