Keen sailors Colin and Elaine Frier were very familiar with the Scottish coastline, so it’s no surprise they decided to build their home in a wonderful seaside location, in a style that’s inspired by ancient longhouses

WORDS JENNY MCBAIN PHOTOS DAVID BARBOUR

For years, Colin Frier had nursed a longing to build his own home. With a career spent in the construction industry, first as a quantity surveyor and then as an acoustic consultant, he had decades of experience to draw on, but it was only when approaching retirement that he felt it was time to take action.

Colin and his wife Elaine lived in the coastal town of Helensburgh near Glasgow, but they wanted to find the right building plot, complete with a captivating view, somewhere in the Argyll region of the south-west Highlands. “We have a boat and have enjoyed sailing round Scotland for many years, so we knew we wanted to find somewhere between Tarbert and Oban,” says Colin.

The search is on

Finding a suitable site wasn’t easy. At one point Colin went to see an existing house that was up for sale in a good location. “I quickly came to the conclusion that I would have to demolish it and start from scratch. Given that it was on the market for off ers over £200,000, that added up to an expensive building plot,” he says.

Eventually, having exhausted the conventional route of consulting plot-finding websites, there was a breakthrough. “I was out with a friend in Tarbert and he mentioned that a local gamekeeper who lived close by had two or three sites for sale,” says Colin. “None of them were on the open market but they were fully serviced and had outline planning permission.” One of the plots was in an elevated position, commanding stunning views across the south-west coast towards the island of Gigha. Colin and Elaine had found their perfect plot, and it was theirs at a cost of just £100,000. the deal was sealed in 2012 but the couple didn’t feel any sense of urgency to build, because they still had to sell their house in Helensburgh and Colin was working full-time at his Glasgow firm, New Acoustics.