Home sweet home for Mull family
Keys to Pennyghael’s old schoolhouse have been handed over as a new long-term rental home on Mull, thanks to funding help.
The schoolhouse in the south of Mull was bought last year with money from the Scottish Land Fund, Argyll and Bute Council and the Ecology Building Society, to stop it from being sold as a second-home or holiday cottage.
Early this month, Mull and Iona Community Trust (MICT) handed the keys to the Bevington family who had been in a short-term let elsewhere on the island.
Extensive renovations, including a new air source heating system to make the house more energy efficient, had been carried out by tradesmen from the area.
An allocation policy, giving priority to families already living on Mull with a housing need, was developed and agreed by members of the Pennyghael community along with representatives of MICT and South West Mull and Iona Development.
Sian Bevington said: ‘We are so happy and relieved to have been chosen to live in the schoolhouse. We can’t wait to get settled. We are so grateful to everyone involved in the process for choosing us.’
MICT general manager Moray Finch told The Oban Times: ‘We are delighted to hand over the keys to this house which provides another much-needed, long-term rental property on Mull, where a third of all properties are not in permanent occupation. We wish the Bevingtons every happiness in their new home.’
Sandy Brunton, who sold Pennyghael Schoolhouse, was determined his early family home would not become a second or holiday house and is now encouraging other people to think about doing the same.
‘Having grown up in Schoolhouse, it is very much
Pennyghael part of my
The Bevington family at home in Pennyghael Schoolhouse.
family background. It is lovely to see a family moving into this house and playing a part in repopulating this part of south-west Mull,’ he said.
The home brings MICT’s total housing portfolio to seven properties and it is hoped this is just the first community purchase of an existing house for the organisation.
Other plans to deliver housing include working with the private sector and island businesses, investigating options for new croft creation, reinvigorating long-term empty properties and applying Rural Housing Burdens to properties for sale making sure they stay in use as permanent homes.