Introducing - The Blunder Bus.

The day after the shepherds hut made its perilous journey from the farmyard down toward the March pool (it is now tucked away in the juniper down towards the bothy project - not far short of the new sauna), another project arrived to take its place. Almost immediately christened the blunder bus, this is a 1951 Bedford K type which once upon a time was used to ferry pilots around an airfield. It then spent some time as a school bus and now is pretty much in kit form after languishing partly restored for a decade or so. Apparently it is one of only two left in the country.

As an accompaniment to the Beermoth in the Canopy and Stars stable of oddball rentals the current thinking is that it is going to need some buttoned leather, perhaps a chesterfield style fold out bed, a gramophone, a drinks cabinet and the right lighting. It also needs the body removed from the chassis just to get into the workshop. And it needs a whole heap of metalwork.

What this means is - if plans go according to plan - that in the spring the full Inshriach public transport restoration department will come into operation. At one end of the farmyard the Railway station will be coming together and at the other end we will be restoring a vintage bus. To me, this is a very exciting prospect. Thankfully we have 5 more new and amazing people living around the farm now, all skilled and willing and up for getting involved. When we are back to full strength after Christmas I will introduce them.

Watch this space.

Availability for 2014 and tripadvisor.

The earlier months of next year are booking up fast on the main house, you can have a look at our availability calendar through 2014 over on our Holiday Lettings / Trip Advisor page and if you have stayed here feel free to add to the (so far) extremely positive feedback.

The shepherds hut.

Huge thanks to Tim Westman, who in close collaboration with his daughter Lizzy, has built this tremendous Swedish inspired shepherds hut which made the journey from South Wales to Inshriach a few weeks ago. We are busy fitting it out down in the farmyard and next year it will be available to rent via Canopy and Stars as the fourth installment in the yurt, beermoth, bothy project saga.

You can see more as it develops over on the Inshriach House facebook page.

The solar wood shed.

In order to make way for the Railway station a double garage in the farmyard is going to have to come down. That in itself is no great problem except that it carries 10 not very well orientated solar panels and I don't want to put them back onto the station once it is up. The woodshed that services the yurt and beermoth is also in the station's path so on nice days we have been building something that will perform both functions, and get maximum solar gain both for the panels and for seasoning the wood in the shed. We started with a lot of digging and a concrete pad which cost only £1 more than we got for a trailer full of scrap metal, and the rest is pine logs we felled round the estate pegged together with chunky oak dowels.

If anyone is getting rid of some reasonably straight corrugated iron we can get it finished under our budget (of nothing).

Dune and Bertie photoshoots.

Back in May we had another shoot at Inshriach, the fruits of which are now creeping into shops and magazines and spreading across the net. The current catalogues for Dune and Bertie, as well as in store and film campaigns are all Inshriach based. They were shot by Esther Hasse, organised by the agent Terrie Tanaka and produced by Location Scotland and I will post more of the pictures and films as they appear.

The eagle eyed amongst you will spot locations in the house, by the loch and down by the march pool in the Dune campaign with the Bertie shoot focusing its efforts at the yurt. To top it all Monty has a new career and a couple of the more unusual vehicles from the Inshriach stable had an outing.

Homes from Homes.

And in a week of full blown press and publication, Vinny Lee's new book Homes from Home 'Inventive Small spaces from chic shacks to cabins and caravans' has just come out featuring the Beermoth. Its a beautifully researched book and full of ideas if you are planning on going down the route of building something small and unusual.

Marie Claire Maison on the Bothy.

For the French speakers out there our second outing in Marie Claire Maison this year has just hit the news stands, this time featuring the Bothy Project.