In the Cairngorms – ADC

So without sediment

Run the clear burns of my country,

Fiercely pure,

Transparent as light

— excerpt from “The Hill Burns” by Nan Shepherd, from In the Cairngorms

An intensely rural place, the Cairngorms mountain range in the Scottish Highlands has inspired many. Queen Elizabeth II spent almost every summer of her life at Balmoral, meanwhile the writer and famed walker, Anna ‘Nan’ Shepherd, was so moved by the landscape, she dedicated her only published collection of poetry in one book, In the Cairngorms, which serves as a stirring eulogy to the raw and often unforgiving landscape that the Cairngorms can be.

As moving as the dramatic topography is, it can also be quite cold. The National Park receives 100mm of snowfall a week on average every December, which is why the architect Brown & Brown opted for 250mm thick insulation when designing a retreat for Siobhan Turner and her husband Rory Webster.

Named ‘Spyon Cop’, the retreat is nestled into the countryside, occupying the footprint of a former stone cottage. It has been designed to be unassuming, almost hidden away, camouflaged courtesy of grass tussocks cut from the hillside and planted on its roof, and its black larch cladding that makes it look like a granite cutaway, as if shaped by the rocks that formed the Cairngorms 500 million years ago.

“From the outset, we wanted to design a building that sat delicately in the landscape and didn’t disrupt the horizon line,” said Kate Brown in a statement. “The result for Spyon Cop is a simple design, whereby everything springs from the same finish and is deliberately limited, allowing the views to take precedence.”

As much as the house is about being in the landscape, it is about looking out at it, too. Spyon Cop offers up wide-ranging vistas spanning two valleys and the meandering path of the River Don. Views unravel at various points throughout the property, the land and all its wonders being revealed at choice moments: when moving from the entrance hall into an open-plan kitchen and living room, a panorama of the glen the house can be seen from behind a triple-glazed living room window. Meanwhile, a narrow slot window in the bathroom allows you to spy the valley when taking a shower.

“We have no intention of getting a television. We just watch the valley or watch the fire,” said Turner in The Times. “I think it does wonders for my wellbeing. I’ve noticed I sleep very well there.”

The rural setting is a welcome refuge from London life for Turner and Webster, who bought the three-acre site for £80,000 in 2017. The house cost just over £300,000 to build and is based on a simple but efficient floor plan. To the east is a main bedroom and ensuite, and to the west are two bedrooms, a family bathroom and a utility room. Between these areas lies the dwelling’s spatial fulcrum: an open-plan kitchen and living room from which the adjacent spaces feed off.

Brown & Brown employed a minimal material palette for the house. Inside, a concrete board-marked wall contributes to the textural qualities of the living and dining areas, serving as a contrast to the smooth finish of microcement flooring. Custom plywood has been used to fit out the kitchen, with this timber being found throughout the house being used for internal doors and a storage bench in the dining room.