6 March 2020

Julian asked me what our criteria were for selecting the site. It’s worth mentioning because we looked at many and this one wasn’t obviously THE ONE when we first saw it. We’re sea kayakers, so we wanted to be near the water. We didn’t want to be beside a busy road. Lots of sites looked interesting until you factored in the ‘road that goes somewhere’ running within metres of the house. One reason for moving is to get away from traffic noise. There were quite a few attractive plots very near the water, one we viewed already had a Heb Homes longhouse on it but I didn’t want to wake up every morning with the sea creeping closer, as it surely is, and a growing anxiety that it would be on the doorstep (level access, no step!), or rolling in over it… Our finished floor level will be 36m above sea level. Some fabulous sites were just too tight – plots big enough for a house but with very little space around them, so little opportunity for controlling visibility and privacy and no space to play with a bit of landscape. Plot five is two acres with interesting topography. We didn’t want to be part of a tight cluster of houses. We are one of five plots but can see only parts of our nearest neighbours’ roof. South facing was pretty high up on my list; I aspired to a passive(ish) house standard, so passive solar gain was a serious consideration. I struggled with this when we saw the plot. It slopes the wrong way. Discussions with architects and designers led me to think it was not the be-all-and-end-all. The higher land to our south protects us from the prevailing wind. And Henry pointed out that views north are always sunlit. A view. Our main view is east, woodland, the loch, sunrise. The elevation helps. Of course we wanted a view, had no particular view in mind, but the genius loci, the spirit of the place has to be right – what we get is a great sense of space. Affordable. Some just weren’t. This wasn’t obviously a great bargain and came with a hefty charge for services already provided. If not a bone of contention it’s a serious bit of gristle. Location: west coast not east. We wanted to be within reach of spectacular scenery if not in it. Anywhere beyond Oban started to look and feel a bit too remote for visiting friends, and possibly for day to day life for newly transplanted southerners. We looked at islands. We hoped for a station so visitors didn’t have to drive. Landscape and wildlife: Plot 5 sits next to ‘Atlantic oak woodland’, it clothes the landscape and is full of wildlife. The plot was conifer plantation, clear felled some years back and now sprouting with native broadleaf trees, heather and bilberry. Not far away the reintroduced beavers are doing well, ospreys are resident and pine martens roam.

…enough. I have to work another couple of weeks before starting my year’s sabbatical.