Building the birdwatcher's nest

A roofless wreck in the wilds of north Ayrshire was revived by inserting a new house within the repaired stone walls

- Caroline Ednie

As a keen birdwatcher and photographer who spends much of his free time out in the hills, Scott James is always on the lookout for the weird and the wonderful. He has trained his eye to see what the rest of us might miss - and it is this ability that led directly to him now living in a wild stretch of north Ayrshire countryside. Out on a walk one day with his Belgian shepherd dog Maxie, he wandered down a single-track road lined with ash trees where he came upon an old stone building that had fallen into ruins. Intrigued, he took a good look around and when he got home he decided to research it.

"I just thought it was beautiful," he says. "I found out that it dated back to the early 1800s, when it was built as Cuddymoss farmhouse, before later becoming a cattle byre. All that was left of it were the four external walls, a concrete slab floor, a single internal stone wall and two brick walls. I began thinking about how it could be reinstated, as there was definitely potential here to make it into a home. I felt I'd like to celebrate its history and add to its story. My idea was to elevate the ruin rather than swallow it up with something new.

He got in touch with the landowner about buying the site, and at the same time contacted architect Ann Nisbet. Scott had noticed her name when he was researching the plot; she had designed a house nearby that was one of the first to gain planning permission under new guidelines for single houses in the north Ayrshire countryside. "I emailed her to say I was considering a plot for a self-build and asked for her advice to point me in the right direction, Scott recalls. The pair instantly established a meeting of minds,  bonding over the possibilities of the site, which Scott purchased a year later, in 2016.