Idyllic Holiday Cottage in Scotland – now available for booking

Click for gallery - Holiday cottage in Tiree

Machair Cottage, Heanish on Tiree

The renovation work is now complete and our Tiree holiday cottage is finally ready to receive guests. Our builder, Bruce Kemp, has done a terrific job in transforming the cottage from its original cold, drafty and damp condition into a warm, modern, comfortable self catering cottage… and only 150 yards to a large white sandy beach – the perfect location for family holidays.

Holiday cottage in Tiree with sea views

150 yards to white sandy beach

Click for gallery - cottage 150 yards from beach

150 yards from white sandy beach

One of the greatest aspects of the cottage is of course, the fantastic far-reaching views – with panoramic sea views out of both the front and back of the cottage it has a wonderful feeling of wilderness and yet it’s only a few minutes walk to both the main supermarket in Scarinish as well as the Scarinish Hotel with it’s bar and restaurant overlooking the small beach and stone harbour.

The lounge at Machair Cottage, Heanish, Tiree

Wide angle (composite photo) of the lounge

Bedroom 1, Machair Cottage, Heanish, Tiree

Bedroom 1 (wide-angle composite photo)

In summary the cottage includes:

Entrance Hall
Coat hooks and shoe rack

Lounge
Large leather sofabed (with kingsize 5ft mattress) leather corner sofa, bean-bag, 28” TV, DVD player, FreeSat TV connection, PlayStation v1, electric wall fire, small selection of PS1 games, DVDs and books, dual aspect sea views

Dining Room
Dining table with 6 chairs, 2 lounger chairs, bean-bag, wi-fi broadband connection, electric wall fire, dual aspect sea views

Kitchen
Electric oven and hob, microwave, fridge with freezer box, toaster, kettle, well stocked with kitchen utensils etc, view over Hynish Bay

Landing
View over the Machair and sea views to Mull and the mainland

Bedroom 1
Main Kingsize Bedroom – has a built in wardrobe and fantastic dual aspect sea views through the large velux windows over towards Mull from the front and out over Hynish Bay from the back.

Bedroom 2
Twin bedroom, free standing wardrobe, dual aspect sea views

Bathroom
Large mains pressure shower, sink and WC, view over Hynish Bay

Please explore our website and do not hesitate to drop us an email or give us a call with any enquiries regarding renting our holiday cottage in Scotland – we hope you have a fantastic holiday on Tiree.

Self Catering Cottage in Tiree – renovation nearly complete

Progress towards completion of our holiday cottage is going well and we’re planning to visit the island shortly to finish off all the final decorating as soon as the internal works and snagging items are completed.

The cottage is around 100 years old and so, like many holiday cottages in Scotland by the sea, it’s not really surprising it was in need of quite a bit of renovation – the windows leaked like crazy, there was damp behind the walls and there was a general lack on insulation – and no heating. However the location and view make up for everything.

View across Hynish Ba,y Tiree from bedroom window

View across Hynish Bay to Ben Hynish

Our builder, Bruce Kemp, has done a great job with the cottage. We’ve had brand new uPVC windows throughout the downstairs to take in the views as well as brand new, large velux windows fitted to both the bedrooms again, to take full advantage of the fantastic views.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
All the internal ground floor walls were stripped back to the bare stone blocks and then re-lined with waterproof membrane and insulation before being re-plasterboarded. In the process, everything has been re-wired with a new consumer unit for all the heating and hot water system, there is new laminate flooring throughout, as well as new ceilings and storage heaters have been installed in all the main areas. The bathroom has been completely gutted, tiled and re-fitted with a modern suite and a large, mains pressure shower. Finally, the whole cottage has been re-decorated from top to bottom both inside and out.
 
We spent a week at the cottage in April working on some of the decorating and had another week of spectacular Tiree weather as well. The kids went windsurfing and body-boarding every day and, providing you sat out of the slightly chilly breeze (it was April), it was warm enough to sit and relax on the beach… another perfect cottage holiday (albeit with a lot of painting)
Balephuil Beach on Tiree

Making the most of the weather on Tiree - April 2012

Fantastic Tiree weather on Balephuil Beach

Another spectacular day of Tiree sunshine - April 2012

How a holiday in Scotland led us to our own Holiday Cottage

Our first trip to Tiree was a number of years ago when my wife spotted a holiday cottage to rent in the Inner Hebrides. My first thought was it sounded a bit remote but we all agreed it would be a different kind of holiday from our usual sort of trip to either the Mediterranean or staying in holiday cottages in Cornwall.

Flying up from Birmingham, with a quick transfer at Glasgow, was easy and as we flew over the island, the little white dots of coastal cottages and the fabulous beaches below us looked stunning in the bright sunshine. We stayed in a lovely holiday cottage at Milton, at the far eastern end of the island, literally 40 yards from the shore and it was fantastic. There were seals on the rocks, sheep roaming freely around outside the property and it had amazing views all around. Straight away we knew Tiree was a place we would definitely come back to visit again.

Holiday cottages in Scotland with sea views

Click for Gallery - Dawn breaking over Tiree

In fact we came back on several occasions, staying at Milton again and then subsequently we stayed at a lovely self catering cottage overlooking Loch Bhasapoll and it was on our 3rd return visit we decided we liked Tiree so much that this was exactly where we’d like to have the holiday cottage we’d been talking about for several years.

 

When this ideally located property in Heanish came onto the market in early 2011 we turned out to be the lucky ones in managing to purchase it. However, it was a very intense process not least because of the way cottages in Scotland often go to a closing date (like sealed bids) where there is also an expectation that bids will be well in excess of the surveyors valuation in order to try and secure the property. We also had less than 10 days to instruct a solicitor, arrange a mortgage, perform all the usual due diligence and get our legally binding offer in!!!

Following successful completion we spent the whole of August living in our Scottish cottage during the school holidays. It was a fantastic time during which we spent nearly 20 days on the beach and only had 3 days throughout the whole month of what you would call miserable weather. The kids went body-boarding virtually every day as well as doing plenty of cycling and their wind-surfing lessons.

The builders started at the beginning of September on the holiday house renovation work as soon as we’d left to come home. Within days all the wall linings had been stripped back to bare stone, all the old wiring pulled out and the bathroom was ripped out – the place looked a complete wreck but obviously we knew it was just the transitional phase and things would start to look better – eventually.

The renovation of our holiday cottage in Scotland is going well and we’re planning to visit the island shortly to take care of all the decorating as soon as our builder has finished the internal works – we can’t wait to see the property again.

Idyllic Holiday Cottage in Scotland

Our holiday cottage in Scotland is located less than 150 yards from a large sandy beach at Heanish on the wonderful Isle of Tiree. Tiree is the most westerly of the Inner Hebrides and is just over 20 miles off the Scottish mainland.

The cottage is currently undergoing extensive renovation and modernisation to turn it from its existing leaky and drafty condition into a warm and appealing holiday cottage that will accommodate 4 to 6 guests. There are 2 twin bedrooms, both with dual aspect sea views, and there is a sofa bed (which is large and comfortable) in the lounge to sleep 2 additional guests if required.

The kitchen is functional and well equipped for an ideal self catering holiday with the added bonus of a fantastic sea view out over Hynish Bay. Both the lounge and dining room have dual aspect sea views and both are fitted with attractive and effective wall mounted fires. The lounge also has a 28” TV with all Freeview channels as well as a DVD player. There is a small library of DVDs available but obviously you’re more than welcome to bring your own DVDs as well. There is also a PlayStation v1 with a small selection of games available.

The bathroom is being re-fitted to include a powerful shower running from the fully pressurised hot water system – and again the bathroom also enjoys the same wonderful sea view over Hynish Bay – a stunning view for those who enjoy coastal cottages.

The cottage is 200 yards from the road and is accessed across the wide, open machair (grassland) and the cottage enjoys panoramic sea views right around it from it’s excellent headland position which creates the perfect setting for your holiday in Scotland.

Our holiday cottage in Scotland should be ready to receive guests for cottage breaks from April 2012 and we will post more details and pictures as soon as they’re available and the renovation work is complete.