Kilmorack House

Houses

Strata kilmorack house 2 — The east gable: bigger blocks at the quoins, the zinc roof edge and the larch-lined entrance

Strata kilmorack house 3 — The long room: larch ceiling, a step down where the hillside falls away, and the firth in the deep reveal

The clients had farmed this hillside for thirty years and wanted to stop climbing the stairs of the old farmhouse. The brief was one level, a room that looked at the firth, and nothing that would embarrass the barn next door.

We dug the foundations first and found more stone than the engineer had promised. So the walls are that stone: 450 mm of coursed rubble, lime-bedded, with the bigger blocks kept for the corners where the wind arrives. The plan is a single bar with the bedrooms at the quiet end and one long room at the other, a step down in the floor marking where the hillside falls away.

The roof is untreated larch on a sarking deck. It will go grey in about four winters, which is roughly when the pointing settles into the colour of the wall. I visited every fortnight for eleven months, and the mason and I argued, in the friendliest way, about every quoin.

Project info

Location: Beauly, Highland
Year: 2025
Area: 214 m²
Structure: Load-bearing sandstone, larch roof
Status: Complete

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