“I liked our last holiday house better,” announces my niece on arrival at Gairnsheil Lodge’s Laggan Cottage in the Scottish Highlands. The thing about six-year-olds is that they famously have very little taste, and this isn’t the first thing we’ve disagreed on (other topics include bedtimes, what constitutes ‘dinner’ and how often you should brush your hair). You’d think for someone who was being treated to a bucket list holiday she’d have a little more respect.
Attitude of other guests aside, I won’t be put off my stride. To me, this is the perfect rental. Somewhere that has you feverishly dreaming of selling up and starting a new, romantic life in the country as soon as you clap eyes on it at the bottom of its gently winding, single-track approach. Sitting in the heather-clad hills and circled by a tumbling stream, it’s the stuff of Scottish storybooks. Lying low under sagging winter skies in its hollow, it’s a traditional cottage carved out of Speyside stone with sweet multi-pane windows and double chimney breasts book-ending the building. To one side there’s a new porch to stuff with wellies and jackets, which leads onto a kitchen, through to a lounge and continues on to the one downstairs bedroom, before you head upstairs to two more rooms with their own beautiful bathrooms (more on those later). It has the distinct advantage of going against the grain when it comes to its aesthetic, too, presenting as even nicer than the pictures in real life, rather than the other way around.
We’re visiting in the depths of December, just before Christmas, and so dark descends by the afternoon, giving us the green light to embrace the ancient art of doing absolutely nothing. With no television in the lounge, we get the open fire and a few candles going, put the adjoining bar to good use, settle into the deep sofa for a few hours and finally turn our attention to dinner.
Every space is devoid of clutter on one hand while also being wholly furnished as a home, so that you can live in it fully, however long you’re staying. The kitchen is a covetable collection of serious kit. There’s a Lacanche cooker for starters, which has been on every one of my Pinterest boards since 2015. There are thick, professional-level pans and plenty of them, generous servingwear, beautiful cutlery and crockery and a stash of razor-sharp Opinel knives. If we had been more ambitious with our planning, this is a place that could have stood up to all manner of menus.
Over our unambitious but crowd-pleasing steak and chips we each pick our favourite part of the design, which is a subtle palette of warm woods and neutrals. There is just enough contrast from a few key pieces, like the coal black grate or a dark red armchair in the lounge, to keep things dynamic. Unanimously we agree our favourite element is the yet unmentioned master suite. It’s where I’ll be spending the night after pulling rank (it’s twin beds and an en suite with the all-essential bathtub for the cheeky miss and her brother, and the beautiful upstairs double with its rainfall shower in the eves for their parents).
