Here is a series of images taken on our first trip to see the land in May 2010, but with very different views as spring had sprung. The first image shows the 270 degree sea views on offer – AMAZING! It was everything we have been searching for over the past ten years since we had decided to look into buying a piece of land and building a second home for holidaying. Individually and as a family we have been coming to this part of Scotland for 26 years so finally a long term dream was on the verge of becoming reality.

We came to a verbal agreement with Charlie the farmer which began the purchase of sale. Firstly the land needed to be de-crofted and outline planning permission sort, this was Charlies responsibility. Once he had agreement from the local authorities that this would be granted we made a formal offer in September 2010 which was accepted. This then started a complicated and slow process which took 17 months to complete, but we finally exchanged in January this year 2012.

While the land purchase took place we began working with our architect friend Nigel Johnston to design a house. He lives locally on the mainland at Arisaig and has been designing contemporary homes for locals and incomers for years. One of his more famous clients is Cameron Mackintosh the theatre empresario who owns huge tracks of land around Loch Morar and Mallaig. Our vision was for a home that kept to the local vernacular of a one and a half storey construction, but with a ‘Grand Design’ twist to capture the amazing see views.