Auchterless

We went to visit a property in Auchterless yesterday afternoon.  Auchterless is about 35 miles from Aberdeen and around a two hour drive from our current home just five miles outside Inverness.

To view the details of the actual property we visited you can either visit the Strutt and Parker website (Banchory Office £335,000 offers over, Aucheterless) or:

www.countrylife.co.uk/em_GB/property/details/property/11144

This gives you the pictures from the schedule (particulars - if you are English) and a brief description.

The property is set on a quiet lane with just one much smaller property opposite.  The 'plot' consists of Pinewood Manse - a substantial property which was bought four years ago by it's present owners as an investment property and has been used for short holiday lets on a seasonal basis ever since.  The manse is a wonderful, quirky building - and surprisingly large and imposing for a congregational church minister!  Particularly from the front.  In fact it looks rather dour and imposing at one angle.  Rather like a minister leaning over the pulpit with an accusatory finger extended.  Reminded me of the silhouettes of Charles Simoen preaching.

Downstairs a large kitchen with plenty of space to entertain informally - although rather impractically laid out at present!  There's a small breakfast room - which would make a good utility space, adjacent.  Then the oddities begin - what would have been a study I suspect - is now a workshop cum utility space - and has had a boiler installed in the room!  Odd.  However, there are two additional, well-proportioned reception rooms and an elegant hall and staircase, a pantry and a further tiny store room, optimistically labelled a study.  The first floor has a separate 'wing' to the rear with two bedrooms, one a box room - and some under eaves storage.  Ideal hide and seek nooks and crannies!!!  There are stairs up to a mammoth loft with flooring and electric in place - large enough for a loft appartment par excellence!

On the main landing on the first floor, rooms spill out on all sides.  A surprisingly compact bathroom given the dimensions of the property; master bedroom with en suite and separate dressing room - and two further, well proportioned rooms.  The feel was very much of a property that wouldn't take that much to be loved back into life and would enjoy being a part of a vibrant family/community existence.

The house has grounds of an acre - just under actually - I think.  Adjacent to the manse is a derelict congregational church.  The building has been raped of her character and previous life and is in desperate need of restoration.  She's currently exposed to the elements - and has even had the memorial tablets removed from the walls along with the floorboards.  She provides a happy home for local birds.  Unbelievably sad to see the building so unloved.  But the kirk still seems a friendly space and one which would like to be utilised.  Behind the kirk and across from the house is a steading, which is currently used as a workshop space and garaging.  Behind that a large garden with fields on all sides - used mostly for crops - turnips just now we were told - which seemed a bit unlikely at this time of year - but there we are.  Along one side of the property is a small burn.  Larger than a ditch - but not wide enough to describe as a stream really.  Certainly not really a paddling spot or fishing place.  Not even suitable for river watching!!!

There was a great deal about the place which was fall in lovable with.  The manse could be subdivided to make self-contained accommodation on different floors.  The steading could be used as a small family home or as the new base for The Sanctuary.  The kirk, on first impression, lent itself to becoming the common area with a worship/meditation space, perhaps a library area and some smaller rooms.  But, equally, on reflection, it could make a super home - outline planning permission for a six bedroomed house is in place for the kirk.

The property gave us a great deal to think about.  It had a good feel.

We had a scout around the immediate area.  Auchterless is quite a substantial village, but has no 'centre' outside of the Kirk which looked as though it had a life and purpose in the place.  Turriff was a ten minute drive from the manse and is a vibrant, small market town.  Hotel, banks, building society, gun and tackle shop, hardware store, award winning butcher, baker, fish and chips, Tandori, Chinese, little gift shops, clothes shops and florist; medical parctice, funeral director, cottage hospital and dentist.  Didn't spot a vet - but I'd guess there's one.

It looked a vibrant and lively little community.

No coffee shop that we could see.  I really wanted a coffee shop and bookshop too!  I think the place reflects it's agricultural heritage and clientele.

There's a lot about this property that works, but there are some things I question.

Firstly, as a base for a community which wishes to think outside the box a bit and be creative etc...  it would make a much more than adequate base and home in terms of the building and development potential, but is it well enough placed for the infra-structure?  For life outside community?  For those attracted to the community life, but do not wish to work from their new home - I am very unsure what work would be available locally.  This is predominantly an agricultural area.  Secondly, I felt some empathy for the property's nearest neighbour.  Just across the way is a delightful cottage - with no other houses immediately about.  I wondered how I would feel if some sort of group of people turned up and moved in opposite.  However well meaning we were as neighbours, it would be awfully important to get on very well indeed with the people who live opposite and whose windows look straight into ours!  The only two houses for probably a third of a mile but they are positioned exactly opposite each other on a single track road!!!  Spooky.

Very personally, as a non-car driver, and with a much older partner - who may well not go on driving for ever - I was also a bit concerned about getting about independently.  It's about 10 miles to the nearest station - and although there is a bus stop a short walk away - I do know that trying to lug a week's shopping on the bus is a nightmare.  Past experience has taught me that life is much easier if there is at least one general store within walking distance.  They will usually order almost anything for you and are keen to be of service to the local community.  The internet is not the same as speaking to people.

Lastly, for pilgrims and guests at The Sanctuary, one of the attractions has undoubtedly been our location.  Idyllic views, privacy - but also the sense of all the basic ammenities within easy reach including rail, bus and airport.

As I went to sleep last night I was trying to do architectural gymnastics and see if there was some way of increasing delineated space here.  But, given the fact that we want people to have independence rather than experience dependence and control, it is difficult to see how this can be achieved unless we settle for a model of community which means we all reside in this area and meet here or work from here.  I can't get quite so enthusiastic about this - but I am open to persuasion!

For now I will continue to monitor a few sites that seem to specialise in the kinds of properties that might suit the project.

I feel the combination of visiting the manse and kirk at Strathtonge and this one at Auchterless have very much helped me to begin to work through my own likes and dislikes.  I am getting a bit worried though that no one is entering into a commentary via the blogs - although people are talking to me a lot when we meet, via e-mail and on the phone.  Can I encourage those of you with an interest in seeing a community of this type develop to start writing 'comments' on these evolving thoughts.  By all means use a pseudonym - so that you can think freely. I think it might be useful.

What are other people's impressions of Auchterless?  Does it appeal?

Comments

[Thea]

Amazing.

Mary Daly wrote:

It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.

[Jane W-G]

Thanks for this Thea. Encouragement to think positively is appreciated.

[Simon]

In addition to the major works that would be required for the kirk, both internally and externally, the steading also required fairly major attention to walls to deal with settlement, and to the roof as a consequence.

Having been spoiled by our location at St Columba House, with the relative proximity of rail and air transport, Inverness and its amenities (not least of which is the excellent Raigmore Hospital), the manse at Auchterless, whilst providing a degree of tranquility, does not have a distant outlook and could feel quite claustrophobic - the site is not large and privacy for different 'families' could be difficult there.

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