UNTIL 2009, Jura House, on the Isle of Jura's Ardfin estate, was a somewhat glum shooting lodge, originally built by William Burn in the 1830s and enlarged by Alexander Ross 50 years later. Its attraction was less the Victorian architecture, which had perhaps never been distinguished, but the exceptional landscape setting. Overlooking the mountains of nearby Islay, it commands glorious views over the constantly changing sea and shoreline. More than 10 miles of fretted coast is trimmed with beaches of grey sand that are inviting for rugged barbecues. Guns had been coming for generations to cull Jura's splendid stags, which can weigh 25 stone; shoot the dusk flights of woodcock as they emerge from woods to feed on pastureland; or even bag one of the island's colony of wild goats. In the summer, midges permitting, there were hill walks and trout fishing for the energetic, with, nearer the house, a large walled garden planted with tree ferns and other exotic species that can be grown on the west coast of Scotland, due to the gulf stream. What a place to holiday with young children.
Certainly, it caught the imagination of the present owner, for whom the spectacular views (Fig 1) more than made up for the rather forbidding character of the house. Initially, the decorator Louise Jones was asked to do little more than repaint the walls and recover the furniture. But the project grew. The owners found they liked Jura House so much that they wanted to share it with guests; by 2012, the architect Alireza Sagharchi of Stanhope Gate Architecture had been asked for a scheme that would completely reimagine the house, creating a new entrance on the landward side and adding a new wing to east and west.
Denne historien er fra August 31, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 31, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
