1 bed rural cottage, stunning views, pet friendly

I rent a quirky old cottage in beautiful Gairloch, and I’d like to find the right person to live here while I’m away for nine months working and travelling. Rent is £475 a month including council tax, broadband and TV licence, but not including electricity. It's quite an unusual property and definitely won't appeal to everyone, so please read the full description before getting in touch.

I’ll be away from 1st August 2024 to around 1st May 2025, though there’s some flexibility on the end date. I’ll be leaving all my things in my bedroom (which won’t be part of the let) and renting out what is currently the spare room (which has twin single beds), along with the rest of the house, of course. I’ve advertised it as a 1-bedroom cottage but it’s really a houseshare of a 2-bedroom cottage – except that you won’t have to share it with me because I won’t actually be there! So basically you’ll have the whole house to yourself, apart from my bedroom. It goes without saying that I have my landlady’s permission for this. I’ll put as much of my stuff as possible away in my room to give you more space. I’ve already sublet the cottage in this way for three months when I was away previously – it worked well and the sub-tenant enjoyed his stay.

The cottage is in a unique location, reached by crossing a stream via a footbridge and climbing an unpaved path up a small hill. You can’t bring your car up to it – you have to leave it at the bottom of the hill. For this reason, it wouldn’t be suitable for anyone with mobility issues. It takes around 5 minutes to walk from where you park your car to the house. I use a wheelbarrow for things like bringing Tesco deliveries up the hill! (Fortunately Tesco do deliver here, but they don’t come all the way up to the house.) In spite of the adventurous location, it’s only about a 10-15 minute walk down the hill to Strath Square in the village, where there’s a pub and a few shops and cafes. It’s a steep uphill walk back, though – unless you’re really dedicated to walking and cycling everywhere you’d need a car to stay here comfortably.

Most areas of the house haven’t been redecorated for many years, as you can see in the photos, so this is not the place for you if you’re looking for somewhere with modern decor! It’s a Marmite kind of a place – people love it or hate it. The house is around 200 years old, and like many houses of its age in the area, does tend to get damp. This is kept under control by running the two dehumidifiers most of the time – you’d need to continue to do this.

It isn't well insulated and can be a pretty cold house, but it can be kept warm - though you need to be careful with electricity use to avoid huge bills. There are storage heaters but I don’t use them because I don’t find them very good – instead, there’s a plug-in electric heater in each room and I just heat the room I’m in. In this way, it’s cosy when you’ve got the heaters on – the rooms are small so they don’t take long to heat up. You will find that you spend more on electricity than you would in most houses, but it’s offset by the low rent. Electricity isn’t included in the rent - I’d estimate that with reasonable use (i. e. enough to stay warm!), electricity should cost between £100 and £300 a month, depending on the time of year and how long you’re in the house every day. There’s a smart meter to keep track of costs.

The house has fibre broadband and the speed is decent – enough for streaming, Zoom calls, etc. It also has the following, all in working order though some are pretty old: oven with electric hob, 2 small fridges, large freezer, washing machine, 2 dehumidifiers, vacuum cleaner, microwave, toaster, kettle, slow cooker, TV (works via the internet using Amazon Fire stick - you can get all the usual channels). I work from home and there’s a large height-adjustable desk on the landing which you’d be welcome to use.

The house has a large garden, though dog owners should note that the fencing isn’t secure and there are sometimes sheep or cows in the adjoining field. Most of the garden is left wild which makes it a haven for wildlife. You should see lots of different kinds of birds, and there’s a stag that likes hanging out in the garden sometimes too! The patio in front of the house looks out towards the sea loch, Gairloch beach and the mountains, and if you look out from the top of the garden you can see Skye and watch the sunset. Beyond the gate at the bottom of the garden there’s a lovely burn that sometimes becomes a raging torrent after a lot of rain.

Hopefully that gives you a good idea of what it’s like to live in this very unusual house! If you’ve read this far and are still interested, please get in touch! One final note is just to clarify that I’m letting it out for the nine months only – because I work from home, there isn’t room for a flatmate while I’m here, so you would need to have a plan /arrangements in place for accommodation after the nine month period. If you have any questions, let me know!