May 28, 2013

Rather than standing out from the landscape, Three Glens is almost invisible from across the valley. Its massive stone walls link to a dry stone wall that seems to flow right through the building; on another flank the oak cladding merges with a small stand of fir and birch beside it.

The owners, Neil and Mary Gourlay, wanted a farmhouse that “belonged” to the land it stands in. Stones for the walls have been collected from the fields, the oak is from wind-felled trees on the farm and the wool insulation is from the Gourlays’ own flock of blackface sheep. Three Glens is one of a new breed of “eco-farmhouse”, costing its occupants nothing to run, an important consideration when upland farming has become such a marginal occupation.…