Towering achievement

Published on Thursday 8 January 2009 10:12

GONE ARE THE DAYS when the words "Scottish holiday let" would conjure up images of a tartan paradise (and the word "paradise" is used loosely here). You might credit the influence of boutique hotels for this aesthetic shift – after all, if your idea of a desirable hotel room involves White Company bed linen, funky wallpaper, a flatscreen TV, and a slate-clad en suite, are you really looking for a holiday cottage with floral duvets, tired old lampshades and a portable tel

"Anyone going on holiday wants something the same as, if not better than, what they have at home, and something quirky and different," says John Burke, who opened his first holiday apartment at Croftweit, in Crieff, Perthshire, two years ago, and has since opened two more five-star self-catering apartments within the former mansion house.

Burke followed this with St Ninian's Church Tower Apartment, right in the heart of Crieff, which he launched in June, 2007. This apartment, which sleeps eight, ticks the checklist of must-haves from the bed linen (and towels and bathrobes) to the 42in plasma TV in the cinema room, which is on the middle floor of the three-storey apartment, alongside the open-plan kitchen, living and dining space.

There's a private balcony on this level for outdoor dining, with great views across Crieff, and the views get even better from the library at the top of the tower, where you can see all the way to Loch Turret and Ben Chonzie. The spaces are full of contemporary touches, from the Cole & Son wallpapers and Designers Guild fabrics to the remote-control, multi-colour LED lighting that plays up the exposed stone walls. The only problem with a holiday here is the reality of having to leave again.

Burke's interest in property started 12 years ago when he bought a one-bedroom listed townhouse in Wiltshire, which he followed with a two-bedroom apartment in London. Whenever he moved, he'd hang onto the property and let it, although it was only after moving to Scotland four years ago from Switzerland – he now splits his time between Cambridge and Crieff – that he branched out into the holiday letting business with Croftweit.

"I've always been interested in interior design and magazines and TV shows," says Burke.

St Ninian's dates from the late 19th century and was converted in the 1960s into a Church of Scotland seminary, retreat and training centre. In 1996, St Ninian's was purchased by a property developer, who converted the building into 12 apartments, and Burke bought the Church Tower apartment off-plan in April that year.

"I knew it would be something special," he says. "It's quite unusual to have the full church tower within an apartment. I'm always looking for something unique."

On the plans, this had been conceived as a two-bedroom apartment, but Burke immediately saw the potential to reconfigure the layout, creating a third bedroom and reorganising the living space to the middle and upper levels, thereby gaining the maximum light, space and views. The design process was made more challenging as Burke was in Cambridge, where he works as a business manager for a pharmaceutical company, and travelled north only every second weekend.

"I was working from the architect's plan and visualising how everything would look together without physically being here," says Burke, who also launched his Crieff-based building firm, Corryard Developments Ltd, in 2007. "I've stayed places before where I could see the potential but I've been disappointed, thinking, 'if only they'd used a bit of design and creativity'."

He relishes the fact that different properties enable him to explore diverse styles, although always with the focus on quality, as seen here in the solid oak flooring and the Italian tiling in the bathroom and wet rooms, all of which have underfloor heating.

Here, Burke wanted to respect the age and character of the church and enhance features such as the Gothic windows and exposed stone walls while bringing in strong contemporary elements. "I like having that balance of old and new; of mixing old furniture with contemporary fabrics and wallpapers," he says.

In one of the bedrooms, he picked up the colour of the feature stone wall in the brown-toned Chantilly Cole & Son wallpaper, with a traditionally styled metal bed from Feather & Black and handmade, heavy silk curtains bordered in velvet. Some pieces are from local auctions: "I'll buy something for next-to-nothing and then use Farrow & Ball paint colours to refresh it."

The antique French bed in one of the other bedrooms was bought on eBay – "a bit of a risk but it turned out well in the end" – and is offset with Cole & Son's Orchid wallpaper on the wall behind. There are a couple of church pews, one under the stairs, another in the kitchen, which Burke picked up in a scrapyard in Portsmouth, where he also found an old church window which he refurbished – replacing the damaged glass panels and adding a mirror in the centre – and fitted into one of the en suites as an internal window. "The effect is original," he says.

There are lots of similarly personal touches, like the artworks, including a photo which hangs in the kitchen, taken in the London Underground that Burke found while trawling through a market in London, and the colourful framed posters from Spoleto in Italy, which were designed over the years for the annual Festival dei Due Mondi.

The project was not without its challenges. The steel staircase, which the original developer was responsible for installing, caused problems as it had to be built in situ, and then failed to pass building control inspection as the step width was under the regulation size by 10cm. As a result, around half the stairs had to be ripped down and rebuilt, causing a three-week delay before the apartment could be let.

One of Burke's favourite spots – and the one that always wows visitors – is the library atop the tower, which he has arranged with comfortable leather armchairs from BoConcept. "It's a fantastic place to hang out, especially at night with the lighting on, looking across the town to the hills beyond," he reflects.

It's no surprise to hear that Burke is already going full-speed-ahead on his next project at Locherlour Mill, a five-star mill conversion just two miles from Crieff on the edge of the Ochtertyre Estate, which is due to open in spring.

The mill will sleep 24, and again Burke is mixing traditional and contemporary – for example, the battered antique armchairs he's had reupholstered in Designers Guild fabrics, or the 7ft-high, bespoke, button-back silk headboard he had made for one of the bedrooms. There's even a triple-height orangery with exposed stone walls, a chandelier and brightly hued contemporary furniture, along with a cinema, and an open-plan kitchen looking onto the original water wheel. Now there's a view.

For information and booking for St Ninian's Church Tower Apartment visit www.croftweit.co.uk