Rattar House

A luxury holiday house on the NC500

Breathing new life into a derelict category B-listed house in the far north coast of Scotland

Rattar House is positioned as far north as you can go on mainland Scotland, across the loch from Castle of Mey.  The category B listed house was unoccupied for decades following a tragic fire in the 1970s and was falling into an advanced state of dereliction when the younger generation of the farming family decided to bring the former family home back to life.

  • The original house has a wonderful - but rather constrained - H-plan and so during the design process, it was decided to extend the ground floor by incorporating the adjoining outbuilding into the house to create a bright and glassy space overlooking the garden.  The design respects the historic architecture externally, with smaller rooms opened up internally on the west side to create open-plan living and a flowing plan.  We installed larger glazed areas into areas of the building severely damaged by the fire to allow the light in and to acknowledge the building’s chequered past. 

    The construction phase was carried out during the coronavirus pandemic with the client-architect-contractor team completely dispersed across the UK.  With the building fully modelled at 1:1 scale in our 3D software, we were able to work closely with the contractor and client team using technology and regular communication to ensure the vision was brought to life

    Rattar House is now available as a luxury holiday house rental on the popular tourist route NC500. 

BUILDING

WORKSHOP

Previous
Previous

A House in the Woods

Next
Next

Humpty House