POETIC VISION

Lydia Macpherson and Nick MacKinnon, both poets, have turned a property on the wild Yorkshire moors into a magical home

- Lydia Macpherson and Nick MacKinnon

Could there be a better place to live than the windswept Yorkshire moors, for two poets whose work is inspired by the natural world? When Nick MacKinnon retired from his job as a teacher at Winchester College, he and partner Lydia Macpherson found themselves free to return to the landscape that Lydia’s family had inhabited for generations. They found a home to love, and a new muse in the landscape around it.

The property the couple bought sits at the end of a track that climbs the hill towards Top Withens. The abandoned farm, set in a remote location before the stark and glorious moors beckon, is said to have inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

‘It was pretty much an impulse buy,’ Lydia admits. ‘We were staying with my family and walking to Top Withens one day when we noticed the house was for sale. It’s very high up and completely isolated. We bought it intending to use it as a holiday home, but as Nick was retiring we decided we would live here full time. It was once owned by my four-times great-uncle in the 1800s and my family all live within a few miles, so we’re extremely well rooted.’

The house had been renovated by the previous owner to a good structural standard but the interior wasn’t to Lydia and Nick’s taste. ’There were a few anomalies in terms of how the house was designed > that we wanted to rectify,’ says Lydia. ’The flow of the house wasn’t very logical and didn’t make the most of the spectacular views. That’s what it was crying out for.’