A HIDDEN BURNS GEM
Cottage that has a poetic setting.
IT’S a chocolate box cottage in a location so dramatic it was immortalised by Scotland’s Bard.
The garden of this thatched, whitewashed retreat with pretty leaded windows sweeps down to the River Doon on whose banks Robert Burns penned ‘ Ye Banks And Braes o’ Bonnie Doon’.
From here a leafy path leads to legendary Brig o’ Doon, the spot to which Burns’s Tam o’ Shanter fled with the witches of Alloway Auld Kirk in hot pursuit.
“It’s like being in your own little magical world when you walk through the gate here,” says owner Sue Swaine, whose property sits in four-and-ahalf glorious acres. Then she smiles: “And yet we are only a short walk from the village centre and everything that goes on there. It’s perfect!”
The house – Doonbank Cottage – is of the Arts and Crafts period which flourished between the 1880s and early 1900s. It is close to the thatched cottage in which Burns was born and to the monument erected in his honour.
Doonbank had been in Sue’s family for some time when she and her then-fiancé Chris, a learning development manager, decided to buy it.
Sue, who works for an education charity, recalls: “Chris first saw the cottage in 2005 and like me, immediately fell in love with it. Two years later we bought it and then married in a marquee in the garden. It was wonderful and everything we dreamed it would be.”
The cottage – which had only had two previous owners – was charming but needed some upgrading. The couple set to work and had it rewired, re-plumbed and re-plastered.
The thatch was also replaced and a garage in the grounds was converted into ‘The Bothy’ – a stunning holiday home.
Sue says: “Thatched roofs are quite unusual in Scotland and, contrary to popular belief, not at all difficult to manage. Our roof is constructed from tough water reed which comes with a
90-year guarantee and a life expectancy of 100 years; much better than most tiled roofs.”
It is a home that oozes character but, unlike most traditional cottages, it’s spacious with three bedrooms, a drawing room, kitchen and study. Its décor is tasteful and understated with a fusion of Arts and Crafts and contemporary furnishings.
Outside its private woodland teems with deer, pheasant, owls, heron and duck and is populated with oak, birch, beech and native Scots Pine trees. Fruit trees blossom in abundance in spring.
Chris and Sue, however, have reluctantly decided to sell the home they love as work has taken them south of the border.
Sue explains: “We lived here for a few years but had to follow our work. So we have been renting the cottage and the bothy as a holiday home.
“We love the place so much we thought we might give up work and base ourselves here permanently but our family is in the south of England and we would hardly ever see them.
“We’ll be sorry to say goodbye to Doonbank.”
She adds with a smile: “We hope a family will be the next custodians. It’s an idyllic place for children to grow up, and the most wonderful home for hosting Burns Suppers.”
Doonbank Cottage and Bothy is being marketed by Savills for offers over £595,000.