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Rugged and dramatic mountains or rolling pastoral scenes, Arnfinlay provides both, finds Kirsty Mcluckie
Acharming, country home between Kippen and Buchlyvie in Stirlingshire, Anfinlay is known locally as the house with the beautiful views.
Dave Bertin, who with his wife Suzie, has owned the house for seven years says that they are spoiled for choice as the outlooks as each side of the house offers something different.
He says: “On one side it is gently rolling farmland, but at the other side we look over the Trossachs, which is an ever changing scene.
“Sometimes the mountains are completely invisible, shrouded in mist, other times they are snow capped but we can always see the weather coming. It is quite a dramatic contrast.”
Dave, who works for the charity Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and Suzie, who works in the legal department of a property company, were renting in the area for 18 months before they bought Arnfinlay.
Dave says: “At the time I was mainly working from home, with both of us travelling around Scotland too, so we could more or less pick anywhere that we wanted to live, but we really fell in love with this area, and then the house.”
Although it looks like a traditional farmhouse, Arnfinlay was built relatively recently, in the 1960s, and that was another attraction.
Dave says: “We liked the fact that it was actually quite modern and so a lot warmer than older houses and didn’t require a lot of work.”
Over the years they haven’t changed the layout but put in improvements such as a new boiler and increased the flow through the house by adding double doors linking the reception rooms.
The house has a downstairs fourth bedroom or study with bathroom, a dining kitchen with utility room off it, a sitting room with fireplace and an impressive conservatory with a woodburning stove.
Dave says: “We really live in the conservatory, with the doors open to the garden in the summer. It is a lovely room.”
The sitting room is cosier, with its open fire and is used by the couple in winter.
Upstairs are three large bedrooms and a family bathroom.
The house is finished in a traditional country style with wooden floors and doors, an Aga in the kitchen and a freestanding claw-footed bath.
The bedrooms have charming coombed ceilings and windows which frame the surrounding country views. The couple have upgraded and redecorated throughout in their time there with some bold choices in colours, textiles and wallcoverings.
Dave says: “We both like Timorous Beasties wallpaper so that features in a lot of the rooms.
“We tend to decide together on colours, and go as bold as we dare, like the orange wall in the conservatory. Visitors either love it or hate it.”
The garden of a third of an acre was originally laid out by a Miss Finlay, who built the house, and Dave says her legacy is the mature trees and large shrubs which make for a beautiful backdrop that is also low maintenance.
He says: “It is also full of wildlife. The people who owned the house before us were keen birdwatchers and counted over 60 different species coming to the bird table.”
At the side of the property there is a pretty country garden with a beautiful weeping willow and a carpet of daffodils and snowdrops in the spring.
The fields at the back of the house are a great place to explore with the family dog, a dachshund called Sasha.
Arnfinlay is a couple of miles from both villages of Kippen and Buchlyvie for primary schools and everyday shopping, while Stirling is only 15 minutes’ drive away, and the secondary school catchment area is for Balfron High School.
Within walking distance is the Woodhouse farm shop and cafe which Dave says is a great place to visit, with local produce on offer as well as for stopping in for a coffee.
As Suzie’s job now means her spending more time in Edinburgh, the couple have decided to move closer to the city but they will miss the feeling of openness they have experienced at Arnfinlay.
Dave says: “It is what attracted us in the first place and every day we still stop to appreciate the wide open views.” It sits in grounds of a third of an acre of mature trees, shrubs and lawns. Dining kitchen with Aga, sitting room with open fire and conservatory with woodburning stove. Open views over farmland and to the Trossachs.