OML it’s windy! I live in an on-the-edge (in all ways) bit of the UK so we do get all the weather all the days, but this week’s dog walks have been a real test of mine and the hound’s core strength.
Anyway I’m home, with the radio, hot coffee and a sleeping greyhound, and ready to show you my picks for this week - two cozy-potential wrecks for weathering storms.
Starting with this super-cute cottage in the Scottish Highlands.
Scotland does weather, and its Highlands and Islands homes are classically wide and squat, solid and hunkered in their exposed landscape.
What they do less well is “modernising” those homes. Like this one, replacing heavy wooden doors with plastic ones, covering permeable stone walls with moisture-trapping concrete render. It’s something I’ve been banging on about through two decades of 'Wreck'.
The cottage is in a small crofting community, just outside the small port town of Aultbea. It is in an absolutely beautiful part of the world, with views of the sea but up a hill and along a lane from it.
Downstairs is the living room, separate dining room, galley kitchen and rear porch. Upstairs two loft bedrooms and a bathroom.
The rooms downstairs would benefit from some reshaping, plenty of scope to merge the dining room and kitchen for example, even if you didn't want to integrate that almost-attached stone bothan (bothy).
Outside, as well as that bothan there's a less solid-looking byre and the property comes with half-an-acre of land plus small garden areas to the front and back and parking space.
All in all, a gorgeous detached cottage with outbuildings and land, on the market at offers over £150k.
Details and more pictures through the agent, Bell Ingram, on their site here and on Rightmove here.
My next pick is also a chunky stone house with a barn and views, but 352 miles south of Aultbea.
This three-storey house in the Lake District is in the centre of the quiet village of Helton, a mile from popular Askham and around five miles from Penrith.
The house is on the market for cash buyers only given the "renovation" that needs doing, but more probably given the unlikelihood of getting a mortgage on that undercroft/basement area. This property needs a buyer and a builder who knows what they're doing.
But crikey it has potential. I'm completely in love with its gardens and the views from the rear are just gorgeous.
The ground floor has a large kitchen, through lounge and hall. Upstairs are three bedrooms (one quite small) and a bathroom.
The basement has two big rooms/stores, accessed from those garden doors and from the kitchen.
I'll be honest, that basement scares me, not because of the work needed but because I've watched way too many films starring evil basements.
There's also a large - very large - double-height attached barn and, all in all, a lot of walls for the money.
On the market with a (cash only) guide price of £400k through Britton Estates. Details and more pictures and video on the agent's site here and on Rightmove here.
I was thinking I might finish with a scary basement video, but that wouldn't be fair to the property - or to you, perhaps. Instead, I'll finish with the magnificent Kate out on the wily, windy Moors.
And, for Wuthering Heights fans everywhere, a reminder that the 2026 Most Wuthering Heights Day will take place across dozens of locations globally in July. Get your red frock out : )
