My work as an ecologist involves travelling and staying in remote locations and we decided to holiday in North Uist because of the wildlife, which didn't disappoint. We were prepared to accept that the accommodation would come with limitations and were therefore delighted that the most enjoyable part of our trip related to the cottage.
It has evidently been a labour of joy to reinstate the cottage for Ian and his family. With so many personal touches, he is evidently a remarkable individual. The addition of two skylights in the lounge make it light and the sympathetic colour scheme makes it feel that three feet thick walls don't come between you and ever changing environment outside the window.
It would have been easy to simply sit and enjoy the view from the windows for the entire week, with so much wildlife to see and the fifteen metres or so to the tidal loch there always seemed to be something happening.
The cottage is typical of many of the houses on the island but the inside is modern, light, warm, comfotable and well appointed. We cooked several meals during our time there, choosing to limit our contact with locals during a time of Covid, and found it easy to cook, there is good storage space, a small dishwasher, a good sink, plenty of surface space and everything required. In a separate space there was a washing machine and if we would have had the need for it, a small log burner so I can't see any issue with going out of season.
The WiFi connection was good enough to make Zoom calls and download and send emails.
The area surrounding the house, like houses over the entire island, is a blanket bog, which I couldn't resist looking at, and recorded almost a hundred species of plants, a similar situation back in England would have made it a wildlife reserve!
The slight breeze meant that we were midge free for almost the entire week and were able to enjoy our stay in an amazing location, made better by the comfortable accommodation and thought that had gone into make it such a pleasure.
Definitely somewhere we'll be trying to book again.