Ian and Caroline Urquhart have had a lot of practice tackling bespoke building projects – and they put all of their experience to good use when it came to creating the perfect home to retire to, maximising the potential of this wonderful waterside plot

WORDS JENNY MCBAIN PHOTOS ALISON WHITE

Ian and Caroline Urquhart have made it their mission to play the housing game over the course of the last 30 years, renovating one property and building four others. Their canny approach means they’ve been able to hang onto their main family home, now occupied by their two adult daughters, and build their ideal retirement property – a beautiful new home perched on a picturesque site just along from Urquhart Castle and overlooking the iconic waters of Loch Ness.

While Ian and Caroline are now highly experienced self builders, they didn’t originally set out with the intention of developing so many properties. “We would think that we were settled, but then we’d spot a patch of land that was up for sale and tickled our fancy; and we’d just go for it,” explains Caroline.

The many lessons they’ve learned through decades of house building meant they were well positioned to make the most of this opportunity – and to achieve the dream home they were after. “I’m a believer that you should never take no for an answer,” says Ian.

”We picked a house that was designed for a coastal location, and then positioned it to make the best of the loch view”

“When we applied for our fi rst mortgage we were both working for a bank, which could have entitled us to very low interest rates, but they turned us down for funding. We went to another lender instead and soon became homeowners. We’ve also been refused planning permission on more than one occasion with past projects, but either fought our corner to get what we wanted or waited for a change of personnel on the planning committee.”