KEYS TO KNOW
Over nearly 70 years, five generations have found peace and fun at Creach, reports Kirsty Mcluckie
Creach is a charming, one-and-ahalf-storey extended cottage in a peaceful and scenic location on the Isle of Mull.
The setting is stunning, with spectacular views over Loch na Keal to the towering peak of Ben More, and the house has significant land including a pretty garden, pasture, woodland and loch frontage.
A burn from the hillside above flows directly past the cottage and sweeps down to the shoreline.
It is a lovely house in an idyllic spot and one that has been central to almost all of owner Sarah Palmer’s life.
She says: “My parents bought it in 1954 when my father was still in the Navy. He then served with the diplomatic corps so they were away a lot but they had friends in the area and fell in love with it.
“No sooner had they bought it than my father was immediately posted abroad, so my paternal grandmother moved in.
“She was a great, indomitable spirit who lived here with no car, no electricity and no telephone.”
Returning from their various international postings in 1970, Sarah’s parents moved in and spent 25 very happy years in the house.
In fact, over the last 65 years, the house has served five generations of her family, both as a permanent home and as a haven for holidays.
She says: “My brother and I spent every summer there with my granny while my parents were away, and later I took my own children up for holidays.
“More recently my children have brought theirs up for visits since I have lived there.”
The house has changed enormously over the years but Sarah can still remember what it looked like when she first saw it when she was about six. She says: “Back in the day it was a single gable with a series of small rooms, all of them dark and pokey.”
The house had been the village school, built in the 1870s, so originally the upper and lower floors were not connected, as the ground floor was a schoolroom with separate school master’s accommodation reached by an outside staircase above.
Over the decades the house has been opened up and added to, as each generation aimed to extend the accommodation and let in the maximum amount of light.
The most significant addition was a second gable in 2000, by which time the house had passed to Sarah.
She says: “It was after a millennium Hogmanay party when my son invited ten of his friends, which was a bit of a squeeze, so we decided that we would like to extend.”
It was a huge undertaking, but the additional space nearly doubled the floor plan and added a double-height room with ceiling rafters which serves as an excellent winter sitting room with a woodburner.
With Sarah’s three grown-up children and eight grandchildren, it has meant that the house continues to play host to big family parties.
A mezzanine gallery above the sitting room has been used for the grandchildren’s sleeping accommodation and by Sarah as a studio and workspace.
Downstairs a utility room and extra loo were created – always useful when the house is full of guests.
In the older part of the house, there is an open-plan kitchen and living room, leading to a separate dining room and a bedroom and bathroom at ground-floor level. Upstairs are two more bedrooms and a bathroom.
Sarah has lived in the house full-time since 2010. “I’ve loved it and had a very interesting, happy and useful life as part of the community.”
Sarah started her working life in theatre as a dancer, then graduated into teaching dance and theatre. Some might think that Creach is quite remote from such cultural opportunities but she says: “There is a thriving arts scene in Tobermory and an excellent theatre which I have been involved in.”
The garden was laid out by her mother and it is now a “glorious riot of rhododendrons and azaleas which has been a play garden, a work garden, a pretty garden – and there is also 14 acres of virgin Mull if anyone wants to keep ponies”.
With all of her family settled in the south, it is now time for Sarah to move closer but you believe her when she says that, after such a long association with a beautiful house, the sale will be a wrench. Creach, Killiemore, Isle of Mull. Three bedrooms, open-plan kitchen and sitting room, dining room, day room and detached garage. 15 acres including gardens with a burn that flows to the shoreline. Traditional features with modern touches.