WORDS JENNY MCBAIN PHOTOS ALISON WHITE
It was eight years ago that Iain and Lesley MacDonald decided to buy a large plot next door to their bed and breakfast business. The location was idyllic, on the edge of a sea loch and not so far from the bustling Northwest Highland village of Ullapool. However, they didn’t intend the purchase to result in a self-build project, even though the land came with planning permission for a four-bedroom house. “We bought the plot to make sure we could control the area around our business,” says Lesley, who already had a major home improvement project lined up. “We owned a bungalow very nearby and had drawn up plans to extend it into a perfect retirement home.”