ARDTRECK COTTAGE – THE STORY SO FAR

John and Irene moved into the Cottage in September 2006 slightly less than two years after buying the land with outline planning permission for a single dwelling. The house was not really fully completed until winter 2006 although even so locals, and others with experience of the Skye clock, have said that even that timescale was remarkably quick for the Island!

Foundations of the cottage

The photos give a brief visual history of the sites development from the blue sky of Boxing Day 2005, when work commenced on opening up the access road to the site, through April 2006, when the foundation slab was laid, to Friday September 1st 2006 when the removal truck drew up at the front of the house scattering the caravanserai of vans of various builders, joiners, plumbers and electricians who were still feverishly finishing off the house. The painters by that time had given up and gone home!

Starting the kit house

The house is based on the Orbost house design from the Skye Homes portfolio with only a few modest design alterations (although one required raising the roof level and another putting in a steel beam the length of the house) made mostly at the planning stage of the project, but with one late alteration to bedroom 2 to accommodate an additional en-suite. The Orbost was chosen essentially because of the sites proportions – long and thin rather than fat and square – but also because it best fitted our requirements.

Cottage being built

For eco/technophiles you might be interested to know that the house, and its hot water, is heated by a Ground Source Heat Pump fed by two vertical, 100 metre, boreholes a few metres from the back door.

We also have a private water supply from another borehole near the back door. The water is filtered to remove particles and treated by UV light to remove any latent bacteria, resulting in a plentiful supply of cold, clear, fresh drinking water.

The completed house.

You may see notices locally advising you of the limitations of the public water supply - the result of years of poor planning and investment by Scottish Water - but although we are immune from those problems we still ask guests to be conscious of how they use water during their stay.

Then there is the view with its constantly changing canvas of colours and textures in the rocks and sea – and the sunsets - from a deep cold blue to fiery red and orange.