Rooms
It’s a big farmhouse kitchen with dining table, chairs and comfy chair at one end, the working kitchen at the other (fridge, dish washer, electric cooker, microwave). There’s a wood-burning stove you can use to cook on, or just sit next to it with a good book. There’s a walk-in larder, and a utility room with a washing machine.
Comfy sitting room with old pine floor, sofa, easy chairs and TV.
Sun room/3rd bedroom with quality sofa-bed, wicker furniture and amazing views – you can wake up, open the French windows, and step right out into the countryside.
There are hand-carved shelves and original willow artworks... Front rooms all have beautiful views across the garden and fields to the woods and hills beyond Loch Ken.
One double bedroom - good wooden slatted bed, two pine drawers, one chair and en-suite shower room with comfort-height WC.
One twin bedroom - two slatted wooden beds, two chairs and bedside table, with adjoining dressing room with a futon sofa-bed, and two pine wardrobes. Stunning sunset views.
One family bathroom with roll-rim bath, basin and loo; wooden shelves, heated towel-rail and heated mirrror.
All bed linen included (please bring your own towels).
Accessibility
There's a low step between the sunroom and the sitting room, but otherwise accessibility is good. Seats are not so low that they are difficult to get out of. Cars can be brought up to the front porch, where there are two steps into the house. There is good walking from the front door, either along the driveway and onto the Hidden Road, or up the farm track and onto the hill. There are plenty of places to lean over gates and just enjoy the views.
Facilities
Thermostat controlled heating; good insulation; full double glazing.
Colour TV/dvd/cd player, radio, dvds, books, jigsaws, games.
WiFi. Good mobile phone reception.
Gather herbs from the garden; fill the bird feeders and wait for the red squirrels.
Two adult bikes, barbecue, wooden garden furniture, and lockable shed for storing things.
Quality and Character
Longshot cottage is a quarter mile uphill from the little crossroads at Holmhead, completely detached, with its own garden, and situated near a stream, so there is woodland to one side of you, yet with great views across the GlenKens to the mountains and hills beyond. You can see fabulous sunsets from here, and sunlight streams into all the windows. The cottage is fully insulated and heated (to above modern standards), and has a wood burning stove in the living-kitchen to keep you cosy if you need.
The cottage has been renovated by craft-joiners. There are wooden floors, curvy oak window ledges, and a simple hand-built wood-and slate kitchen. There are quirky but practical little features that you might not notice at once - a sheila-pulley for drying clothes, made of smooth twisted branches; antique architectural features (door-knobs; latches; hooks) being re-used; old farm-features having a new life (an old pig-swill trough makes a handy place to wash your wellies - or your dog - after a muddy walk).
The rustic outdoor porch is made of larch trunks and oak limbs - you can sit comfortably in the sun with your coffee, yet stay warm and dry if the weather is being too Scottish. The curtains are thick; the carpets are woollen; the beds are strong and comfortable (wooden slats; quality mattresses; quality bed-linen); the furniture is solid; the seating is comfy.
The garden has a dry-stone dyke, and is filled with natural features - red squirrels run along the dyke carrying hazelnuts or moss for their dray in the nearby ashtree (bring binoculars!); nest boxes for swallows, house martins and blue-tits are built into the house; leaf-cutter bees hibernate in a wild-bug hotel inbuilt in the stone pile at the bottom of the garden, and if you wake up early you might see the otter (which has a holt on the river bank), or roe deer, in the fields below. The garden is fairly dog-proof (depending on the dog)!