Vintage tea and coffee sets always look beautiful but they sit neglected in cupboards for years on end taking up space because the cups are too small for modern builders tea. Vintage glassware on the other hand gets used all too frequently. At the Edinburgh Antiques & Collectors Fair, the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston there’s a great selections of glassware that is often no more expensive than a box of
It was a long way to travel to get a photo of a signpost. However, these days visitors to John O’Groats are less likely to turn on their heel disappointed at travelling all that way just for some signage. Thanks to Natural Retreats, who worked with Scottish architects GLM and Manchester interior design company, No Chintz, there is self-catering accommodation, a shop and co-operative cafe. Admirably, Natural Retreats decided to keep
Barry Cox decided there was a space on his land in New Zealand that needed a church. The churches he’d studied over the years while travelling in Europe were the inspiration but he combined this with his other passion, trees. Fortunately, he knew a thing about trees; his business re-locates huge mature trees with a giant ‘tree spade’, a contraption that looks a bit like a huge apple corer. With
Without a beautiful old stone wall it’s always tricky to make a walled garden look truly appealing. However, Reiach and Hall, an Edinburgh-based architectural practice, have pulled it off at the latest Maggie’s Centre which opened in Lanarkshire in 2014. Neil Gillespie of Reiach and Hall says: ‘ A Maggie’s brief is challenging for many reasons, it is a unique building type. A Maggie’s is all about a different kind
Kara Burke is an illustrator from Portland, Oregon who brilliantly captures the personality of dogs and cats in these adorable cushions and mini stuffed ornaments. Off the peg designs start at around £20 from Kara’s Etsy shop and she is happy to accept custom orders based on a photograph of your pet. You can find out more here and can contact Kara at kara.l.burke [!at]gmail.com.
Want to stay in this stylish ‘beach house’ in Morar, near Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands? Designed by Glasgow-based Dualchas architects, the house was shortlisted for the RIAS awards in 2015 and is available to rent a week at a time. The Glasgow-based firm adapted the concept of the traditional Highland agricultural building for modern living. The house is called ‘Faire Chaolais’, pronounced ‘Fara Chulish’ to rhyme with Ballachulish and
If you want to make like Clark Gable and Ava Gardner in Mogambo and hang out in a safari tent, look no further than Falkirk. Carr’s Hill Caravan site, which enjoys fine views of the Ochil Hills, has just introduced two luxury safari tents. The tents are located separately from the touring pitches and offer a unique retreat in the Stirlingshire countryside . Carr’s Hill is situated in a peaceful
When Sam Booth was asked about planning permission for a static caravan to generate income as a holiday let for a Galloway farming couple he came up with much more attractive proposal. Instead he offered to build something that would be more in keeping with the surroundings, that met the same planning conditions and could be built for the same budget so long as he kept the design rights. Brockloch
A few months ago we moved from Dunfermline to Culross. Writing this, the view is of the slate and pan-tiled roofs of the various NTS-owned houses as well as our tallest building – the towered Town House – where questionable justice was meted out on a regular basis to thieves and adulterers. And it feels appropriate that a public building is the one that sticks out, that overlooks our everyday
A shed in the grounds of Inshriach House, near Aviemore has been shortlisted for Shed of the Year 2015. You can vote for the Scottish contender on the readers sheds website. George Clarke will be introducing the finalists on his TV series and announcing the winner on Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year, airing on Channel 4 in June. Walter Micklethwait, who runs Inshriach House, built the shed with help from his girlfriend