Cottage Information
When was the building converted?
The church was originally built in about 1908-09 by the United Free Church. This was created in 1900 when all but 150 congregations belonging to the Free Church merged with the United Presbyterian Church. The church feud the ground from the Macdonald estate from Whitsun 1908. In 1929 the United Free Church merged with the Church of Scotland, so Ardvasar Church then became part of the Church of Scotland, Parish of Sleat. Services were held there regularly until the late 1970's.
The Old Church is a stunning building, carefully converted to a home in the early 1990's. There is a wealth of oak panelling, some stained glass windows and a beautiful oak staircase. The picture window overlooking the bay has a magnificent view with unlimited opportunities to watch the local wildlife. The house is truly unique both in its fabric and location. It also has an incredibly warm and welcoming feeling.
Anybody already familiar with our other holiday home on Skye, Colgrain, in Edinbane (www.colgrainholidaycottage.co.uk) will not be surprised at just how well equipped The Old Church is despite being completely different in style. We have been delighted with the feedback we have had about Colgrain, in particular the attention to detail and the quality of all the furnishings and equipment. We tried very hard to make Colgrain a "home from home" and it seems, from our guests comments, that we succeeded. So we have done the same again with The Old Church and we are, quite frankly, delighted with the results.
Downstairs
Lounge, Dining Room, Kitchen, Bedroom and BathroomLounge
Lounge
Downstairs there is a spacious and bright lounge with the beautiful picture window overlooking the bay. The lounge
is extremely well equipped with a 32" wide screen TV, DVD recorder/player,
Sky TV and a stereo system. There are also lots of books and some CDs
and DVD's for your entertainment. For wildlife lovers there is a telescope
looking out onto the bay. It is a lovely room to just simply sit still
enjoy the peace and tranquility of the area. Being an old church there
are not surprisingly a few charming quirks to the house. We puzzled for
some time how it would be possible for everyone to watch the television
using conventional seating. Luckily we have a friend who is an extremely
talented upholsterer so he made this corner unit to fit perfectly into
the room and solve the problem. We think his solution has worked perfectly!
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The Dining Room
Dining Table
The dining room is very
spacious. We had a great time shopping for all the furniture for The Old
Church and this room certainly got the benefit of this. There is a solid
oak dining table and chairs, a beautiful sideboard and a lovingly restored
pew. There is also a sofa which converts to a full sized double bed, also
made by our clever upholsterer friend. For anyone using the sofa bed we
have also provided a room divider to help maintain privacy. There is a
collection of books about Scotland and Skye in particular with lots of
maps to borrow. There is a picture rail all around the room which we have
used to display an impressive collection of whisky boxes and tubes. If
anyone wants to make a donation to the collection it would be most welcome!
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The Kitchen
Kitchen Dresser
Kitchen Table
The kitchen is extremely well equipped with a double electric oven and hob, a fridge and every cooking utensil we have been able to think of. There is a large fridge freezer, dishwasher, microwave, washing machine and tumble drier in the adjacent utility room (which used to be the vestry!). The kitchen is another of the somewhat quirky rooms in the house.
The room is L shaped with two lovely
large windows making it bright and cheerful. For people who prefer to
dine informally there is another oak table with genuine chapel chairs.
We traveled all the way to Walton-on-Thames to source these having found
out about a wonderful reclamation warehouse specialising in church architecture
(check out www.churchantiques.com - it is fascinating!). There is also additional seating for anyone who
wants to doze by the impressive wood burning stove while dinner is prepared.
The solid oak dresser is full of jigsaws and games to keep you entertained.
We have even provided a giant Portapuzzle so jigsaws don't have to take
up the dining or kitchen tables.
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Downstairs Bedroom and Bathroom
There is one
bedroom downstairs called "Coll and Tiree" with bunk beds, chest
of drawers and bookcase, - spot the island theme for the bedrooms! Downstairs
there is also a bathroom with WC, wash hand basin and bath.
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Upstairs
Arran
Barra
Islay
Upstairs
Bathroom
The beautiful oak staircase leads from the lounge up to the landing. At the top of the stairs there is a lovely little recess. As soon as we saw it we immediately recognised it was a perfect spot for a little quiet reading. On one of our furniture shopping expeditions we came upon this lantern, dating originally from the 1920s. We thought it was just perfect for this little corner. We also bought something over 500 books for the house from various sources! Lots of these are on the landing so there is plenty to keep you occupied.
There are six large double wardrobes along the landing set into the eaves space.
There are three bedrooms upstairs, Arran, Barra and Islay, all of which have velux windows facing towards the bay. Arran has a king sized bed, while Barra and Islay can each be set up as either two single beds or as a king sized bed. All the bedrooms have maps of the islands they are names after and a selection of books as well.
Upstairs there is another bathroom
with a wonderful shower - truly skin rippling!
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Outside
Outside The Old church there is an exceptionally pretty cottage style garden. We have provided folding wooden garden furniture and, most importantly of all, have just taken delivery of our Midg-IT midge busting machine (check out www.midgebusters.co.uk)!! These really are wonderful and will make all the difference to being able to enjoy the weather.
The garden is fully enclosed so your children and dogs should be safe
from the neighbours - yes there really is a field of gorgeous "highland
coos" right next door.
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