SPLENDID ISOLATION
Creating a peaceful haven from a ruined tin hut has been a labour of love for Jeanetta Rowan Hamilton and her daughter Caroline,
A dilapidated fishing lodge in Sutherland is transformed into a charming home-from-home
It was touch and go for Birchwood Lodge, a dilapidated fishing lodge in Sutherland, but thanks to a rather determined daughter, it’s now well and truly back in the family fold. ‘It was grim,’ Jeanetta Rowan Hamilton recalls. ‘I used to bring my kids here for holidays and I described it as “camping inside”. The beds and chairs were uncomfortable, and you had to collect wood to light the fire, but it was still so much fun.
‘We’d take our rabbits with us and then they’d escape, and we’d have to go back the next weekend to try and find them. It was heavenly. Then one day it wasn’t any more, it was just grim, and we had to decide what to do with the lodge.’
Jeanetta had been given the property by her mother, who had inherited it from her father in 1962. ‘My grandfather was stationed in Edinburgh waiting for the invasion to come and he was invited by some friends to go fishing, which was quite an endeavour from Edinburgh in those days,’ she laughs. ‘He came up to Sutherland and absolutely loved it.
‘He eventually found this little tin house which he bought. Originally it was used for people who would stay in the big house up the river. If they wanted to fish the lower beats of the river they had to come down in pony and trap and they wouldn’t necessarily make it home for supper, so they needed somewhere to stay. There were four bedrooms, a cook’s room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a bothy at the back where the ghillies stayed.’
When Jeanetta’s mother inherited, her
I used to bring my kids here for holidays and described it as camping inside
I thought we should sell as I didn’t see how I could do it up myself, but my daughter, Caroline, was having none of it
husband wasn’t interested in fishing and the lodge was used sporadically by Jeanetta before eventually falling into serious disrepair. ‘On our last visit, an animal had moved in, there were holes in the floor and moss growing on the insides of the windows. I thought we should sell as I didn’t see how I could do it up myself, but my daughter, Caroline, was having none of it. She decided there and then that we were keeping it.
‘She suggested we take everything out, renovate it ourselves and start again. I literally made two telephone calls and we put the entire contents on the veranda. I painted SALE in red paint on a sheet and hung it on the fence and there was a dealer on the doorstep almost immediately.’
One of the first people on the scene was a local builder, William Hendry, who convinced Jeanetta that she and Caroline could do the bulk of the work themselves. ‘He turned up with a crowbar and instructed my daughter in how to use it and she started dismantling the lodge,’ says Jeanetta.
‘William and his son Douglas did the work we couldn’t, but we did do a blooming lot. We hammered doors out and carted away the stone. We started in 2000 and over the years we’ve just done it bit by bit. We removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room and made a huge open plan room but given that it was just a case of taking a saw to it, it was relatively easy to do, and the wall just fell down. Then we discovered there were no foundations, so we had to redo the flooring in that room.
‘I installed a bath into a room which was sort of a walkthrough space where we discovered a fireplace that we hadn’t previously known about. We removed another wall and created a utility room and the kitchen became what was the cook’s bedroom and larder. Now we have two reception rooms and the dining room is really lovely with a big sofa in it. Of course, because it’s a new room, it’s warm and cosy and insulated, not like the rest of the house.’
Much of the furniture came from Jeanetta’s home in London where she has based her business, Nettles Cashmere. Nettles works on a concept of up-cycling good quality, used cashmere and transforming it with new decorations, applique, buttons and bows.
When it came to furnishing the lodge, Jeanetta applied the same concept. ‘Slowly but surely, I’ve replaced things but on a
shoestring. Every time I drive north, I take something with me that I’ve picked up in a flea market. I stop at every second-hand shop on the A9.
‘I found a wonderful reclamation yard in Nairn called Auld Earn Antiques where I found three pieces of furniture that I knew would work brilliantly in the kitchen, fitted around the sink and oven. I used the fish boxes I found in the house as shelving and I made curtain poles out of wooden broom handles. The bathroom cupboards were a great buy and only cost me about £20.
‘Even the huge sofa was free of charge. A friend was getting rid of it and luckily my sister had the space to store it until I needed it. I did get someone to make the curtains but they are mostly made from off-cuts of fabric. I’ve just always collected things. In the blue bedroom the material cost just £1 per metre. I bought so much of it, I lined the curtains in it as well.’
“
We hammered doors out and carted away the stone. We started in 2000 and over the years we’ve just done it bit by bit
Aside from the up-cycling theme another is the presence of Colman’s Mustard paraphernalia. ‘I’m a relative,’ says Jeanetta. ‘My grandmother was a Colman. Her grandfather was the original Mr Colman so for years every time I’ve seen anything Colman I’ve bought it.’
Eighteen years on, Jeanetta and Caroline have not only rescued the lodge but also the bothy and stables which Caroline now uses as a workshop when she visits. She’s following in the family up-cycling tradition with her company Rag of Colts, which creates beautiful handmade bags from vintage saddlery and re-purposed English bridle leather pieces.
All these changes have brought this former fishing lodge by the Helmsdale into the 21st century although Jeanetta only gave in and installed a landline three years ago.
‘I thought it best not to be completely isolated, although the real appeal is the wildness of it. To walk out my door and see the stars, there’s nothing like it. In London I don’t even know if there are stars. I love it up here. Coming here keeps Ruby (the whippet) and I fit. There are still things that don’t work perfectly, and I think we’ll need to do the roof soon, but this lodge isn’t being sold. I don’t think my daughter would allow it.’