How and where can I find a really remote cottage? Ireland, Scotland, Wales.... where else?

[StarryStarryNight]

I am looking to buy a really remote little 2 bedroom cottage as a holiday home.

I am thinking Wales, Ireland, Scotland, but dont know where to start?

Or maybe land and do a timber self build?

Has anybody done this?

Any suggestions for nice areas where I can cycle, angling (river and sea fishing), pick wild berries, etc...

I dont need electricity.

[ktmoomoo]

hi starry xx how you x are you wanting it for holidays or to live

[ktmoomoo]

bump

[StarryStarryNight]

Hi KT
want it for holidays.... Dont think I can get my dh to live in a place like that full time...
DO you know somewhere?

[moondog]

Ooh,don't buy a secong home in Wales please,or i will come and burn it down.

[expatinscotland]

Why not just hire one if it's going to be for a holiday? That way you can travel someplace different every year.

Seems more enivornmentally sound than buy a holiday home.

Those things have really ruined a lot of communities and caused huge amounts of resentment in the locations you seek.

[StarryStarryNight]

Right. I didnt know this was the attitude in the British countryside.

Here it is big business for farmers to sell off small pieces of land that otherwise would be useless to them, to cityfolk who want to make second home for coming on the weekend and holidays and spending money in shops locally. These holiday homes dont have water and plumbing and electricity and need no infrastructure at all.

Thanks for informing me.

[roisin]

We were on Mull last week, and saw a lovely one for sale on this estate. Cycling is fab around there, wildlife astounding. We don't fish but lots of people angling.

[Desiderata]

[expatinscotland]

It certainly isn't 'big business' for farmers around here, most of whom are tenants being slowly driven off their lands by greedy landlords and supermarkets, who sell the land for exclusive housing estates.

And I have to say, having now travelled extensively in the countryside here, second home owners are right up there with Thatcher in popularity.

Sorry, but that's the truth.

Most will put on a show for the money, but second home owners don't really add to the local economy - they're not there often - and price everyone else out.

[expatinscotland]

You left out moony, Des .

[StarryStarryNight]

expat then thats a shame:
Check this out: COTTAGE

Here you buy them of catalogues!

[expatinscotland]

That actually looks really cool, Starry!

And a good idea.

But I guess for people who have the land here, there's more money in selling it off to Donald Trump for tens of millions for him to turn into a golf course.

[expatinscotland]

Mohammed Al-Fayed also has a large patch of land, but he's apparently left it undeveloped for use as a bird sanctuary.

JK Rowling has a huge tract up here, too, in the Highlands, as does that bitch Ann Gloag.

[Desiderata]

Are these self-builds, Starry?

I personally don't have a problem with that at all. You obviously (I've read your profile) have a need for solitude on occasion, and you have an affinity with nature.

Some of those natural self-builds are wonderful.

The problem many of us have (although it doesn't affect me where I live), is when fairly affluent people buy up local properties for hefty prices, thus making it impossible for local people to buy then.

They don't contribute much to the local economy because they tend to keep themselves to themselves (and load up their cars with luxuries they bought beforehand).

But a self-build, with planning permission, coupled by a genuine desire to enjoy the solitude of nature, well that get's me thumb's up.

[StarryStarryNight]

I guess here it is just a way of life, and you dont have to be rich to have a cottage like this, many city folk do as being part of nature is so important. Most spend every weekend in their cottages, fishing, picking blueberries, artic cloudberries, crowberries etc.

And the farming/countryside community of fishermen and farmers welcome these, and even help look after the cottages by looking in on them, shuffling snow of the roofs, etc. Money is spent in the countryside, both on fishing permits, groceries, etc...

[oliveoil]

oh don't be reasonable Desiderata, just come on the thread and threaten to burn the house down

[expatinscotland]

Yeah, here it's more about how much money they can get for selling the land. Any parcel that comes up for sale usually goes for a BOMB to an affluent buyer to put an exclusive house on.

Sad, but true.

[StarryStarryNight]

Desi, these can come as either a self build construction set, or they can build it for you. There are never too many cottages like this in one area, but they are dotted around the perifery of land which would be hard to farm, right next to rivers, near bog land, in the forest.

But you can also find "cottage neighbourhoods" on a hillside where the farmer has sold off a chunk of land sectioned out, so you find maybe 6 cottages dotted around a mountainside, sometimes too steep for animals such as sheep or cows, or where the land is so barren it is uneconomical to try and cultivate it. Also the sun may be "wrong" in terms of the crop available to cultivate in the region. You would often find boat houses nearby, as people would like to fish, and spend the summer filling their freezer with cod, coalfish, etc.

It is true, the longer i live in London, the more I long for such a place.

Now even my oldest wants to have a house here... and he asking why he was not born here, and why is his dad not from here also. sad.

[Desiderata]

I'm generally reasonable, olive.

[StarryStarryNight]

Oliveoil, you mean, like Moondog? That is benchmark behaviour?

Desi is reasonable and fab, and she doesnt actually need me even half defend her...

[Pixiefish]

Would deffo not recommend Wales at all. England are much kinder on council tax and things. In Wales you have to pay full council tax on all properties. Plus as moondog says houses have been damaged

[moondog]

Who is 'that bitch Ann Gloag'?

Starry,love your patronising assumption that local yokels are pityingly grateful to be afforded the dubious privilege of 'shuffling snow of the roofs'

And as for 'buying groceries'.. My arse!
The 4X4s arrive loaded up with goodies from M&S and Waitrose down sarf.

[Desiderata]

Although olive may well have been taking issue with moondog ... hence the emoticon.

The more I think of it, the more that's likely.

But thank you, Starry.

[expatinscotland]

Ann Gloag is that horrible cow who owns Stagecoach the crap buses.

She's an evil witch of a landlord who challenges Scotland's rambling laws at every opportunity.

[moondog]

Oh her.I got the impression she was ok from reading an interview.Self made isn't she? I like that.