CROFT ORIGINAL

This is a modern croft, raising trees rather than livestock or crops, and the newly finished house that sits on the land is just as forward-thinking

- Alison Gibb

DETAILS

What A three-bedroom new-build house

Where Glen Affric, Highlands

Main contractor MW Construction, Beauly

Structural engineer Fairhurst

Planning consultant G.H. Johnston

Once their two daughters had grown up and left home in 2016, Denise Davis and Mark Williams were ready for an adventure. They'd lived in the Highlands for 20 years, but now they had the urge to try something new. “We sold our house and travelled around Europe for a while, with a view to settling in France or Italy," says Denise. “But within a year I was desperate to get back to Scotland. We decided to look for a house to renovate or a plot to build on. We wanted to live in a contemporary home in a beautiful setting that wasn't overlooked by anyone.”

This was the start of another adventure, and this time they really did make it happen. They began looking for a site that felt remote but which was still within an easy drive of their friends. What they found was a beautiful five-acre plot in Glen Affric, which they bought subject to gaining planning permission to build a house. To achieve that, they needed to satisfy a very particular set of criteria – so much so that they decided to hire a planning consultant to assist them. “The site was designated as a croft, which requires the owners to run a business on the land,” Mark explains. "We needed to demonstrate that our lifestyle would entail enough hours of labour on the land that commuting from a nearby town would be impractical. And the closest, Beauly, is nearly an hour's round trip away.”