“Every time we do something we find something new, and the steading reveals more about its past”
arranged and then it had to be incorporated into the plans before we could finally apply for planning permission.” The couple’s initial idea was to retain all of the buildings, including a barn which dates from around 1847. Although the buildings’ quality was evident, the estate had gone through good and bad times. “Historically, Pityoulish had been a very fertile and wealthy estate; you can tell that because the buildings had huge architectural consideration,” says Hilary. “It was simple, but it had been given due care and attention.” Sadly, that attention had lapsed over the last few decades and the original, horseshoe-shaped layout of buildings with stabling for cows and horses – plus a huge barn in the centre – was in a state of severe disrepair. The couple had hoped to restore the barn, “but ultimately it had to come down.” Fortunately, they have in the main managed to retain the original footprint of the steading, and in the barn’s footprint have built a sunken, walled garden where a sheltered seating area has been created and a hot tub installed. “I feel we’ve put the space to good use; you can still see a presence of the barn and we were able to reuse the natural Cairngorm stone, slate tiles and the massive lintel stones from the barn in the building’s restoration.” Another unexpected bonus was the removal of several large pine trees in front of the
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steading. “They cast a lot of shade on the house and made it really dark, but they weren’t ours to remove.” As luck would have it, a project to install ‘super pylons’ in the area deemed the trees dangerous, and they were cut down. “It completely opened up the aspects to views, wind and breeze, it was an unexpected surprise.” This wasn’t the only surprise – as the grounds
around the steading continue to throw up new discoveries on a regular basis as Hilary explains: “Every time we do something we find something new, and the steading reveals more about its past.” Groundworks unearthed mill stones, leading to speculation that there was a horse drawn mill on the site at some point. “In the front porch we’ve re-used bits of wood that we found during the restoration, which are signed by farmworkers dating back to the late 1800s. We’ve repurposed one of the mill stones as a table too.”
Having not intended to take on such a
large project, finance was an issue, as Hilary explains: “We had a limited budget, but we wanted to ensure that we invested in details which would be there for a long time. Even though we ripped out the interiors completely, what we put back had to have integrity and character, and we’ve tried to reincorporate original timbers wherever possible. We
jan/feb 2022 HIGH POINT
“Finding this place! We have to pinch ourselves as we can’t believe how lucky we are to have found this incredible building in such an idyllic location.”
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