Our family--two parents, two teens--had a wonderful stay at Allaye's cottage.
The setting is enchanting--hillside pasture enclosed by woods, stone walls and narrow lanes, an old landscape that preserves the history of the place. The cottage is charming and very old too, with thick walls, only one room deep, gently renovated with added kitchen and bath so that it's maintained its cozy proportions and rustic feel.
But the best part of our stay was Allaye herself, who greeted us with scones and mugs of tea and joined us at the fire to chat before leaving the place to us. We loved meeting her and were sorry our time together was so brief. Allaye is a gracious, artistic person with an amazing range of skills, interests and life experiences. We enjoyed talking with her, and after she left, looking at the artwork on the walls and books on the bookshelves. Oh what a delicious pleasure, to browse an interesting person's private library on a drizzly night inside a remote stone cottage. Alina stayed up late reading Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavillion, while Chris read Bruce Sterling's Shaping Things. How thoughtful of Allaye to have left for each of us just the literature we craved at the moment. Oh, she left us a loaf of fresh bread too, which we ate for breakfast with scads of butter. Yummmm.
Hot showers after breakfast, a lovely walk to Loch Ana with the kids, we were so sorry to have to go!