Interiors: Glen Tanar Estate, Royal Deeside

The 25,000 acre estate forms a substantial part of the National Park and includes a mixture of forest, farmland and heather-clad moorland. People come here to climb the hills or fish for salmon on the River Dee; others will go riding or mountain-biking; some will simply escape and relax.

Of course, whether you're returning from a day on the hills or planning an afternoon curled up in front of a log-burner with a book, where you stay is an important part of the experience. This is something that Claire Bruce, who owns and manages Glen Tanar Estate with her husband Michael, understands completely. Who, these days, wants to return to a poky holiday cottage with draughty bedrooms and outdated dcor?

Needless to say, the seven holiday cottages at Glen Tanar are anything but. Each property is different: Butler's Lodge was formerly the home of Lord Glentanar's butler and sleeps six, while Rowan Cottage is a cosy, open-plan farm cottage made for two. There's even an original Norwegian log cabin, built in 1938 for Lady Glentanar. "Whenever a building becomes available, the factor knows that before he can re-let it, he has to check with me," says Claire.

Whether a property on the estate is used as a holiday cottage depends on its location and quality. "We try to choose unusual, quirky properties that have some historical connection or meaning, so that you can design the interior around the building and its situation," Claire explains.

In this aspect the cottages at Glen Tanar are unique. The estate was created in 1869 when part of the land of the Marquis of Huntly was leased and then bought by the Manchester merchant banker and MP Sir William Cunliffe Brooks. Brooks made various changes to the estate, including the construction of a number of properties, designed by English architect, George Truefitt, in the Arts & Crafts style. "The cottages were designed with these beautiful finer details that you might not find in other properties in the area," Claire says.

The latest addition to Glen Tanar's holiday letting portfolio is the Garden Cottage, nestled into the corner of the Victorian walled garden and sleeping four. Claire was smitten when she went to view the property, originally the gardener's cottage. "One thing that struck me was that at every point inside you have the most beautiful view out a window onto something green and lovely," she says, and the building is as appealing externally, with its elongated chimneys reflecting its Arts & Crafts roots.

Having worked together on a number of projects, Claire brought in architect Duncan Robson of DWR Architecture in nearby Aboyne. "Duncan immediately had a very keen sense of the heritage of this building," she says. For Duncan, the main challenge in transforming this previously three-bedroom cottage into a spacious holiday home was deciding how to work with the building. "All the rooms were quite small, and while there were a lot of windows, the cottage felt dark inside," he recalls. "The biggest challenge was creating biggish spaces within a smallish building. It means you lose rooms but you're always trying to use the space well, while making the most of the original character."

Today's Garden Cottage offers a dramatically different interior to its before version. Two rooms, including a former bedroom, were combined to create the long dining and sitting space at the heart of the cottage, with its bay window looking onto the main drive and down the glen through the trees. A glazed "sitting nook" leads from the dining area into the kitchen, while a door also leads from the dining area into the first of the bedrooms. An existing outhouse was used to form an en suite wet room, with an opening through the external wall and a sliding door inserted to access the bedroom.

Meanwhile the second bedroom and en suite are accessed off the hallway, which is connected in turn with the sitting-dining room thanks to a glazed internal door flanked by glazed panels - a feature that increases the flow of light.

The cottage was stripped back to its granite walls and rebuilt internally. When the wall was removed to create the sitting-dining room, the original granite fireplace was discovered, having been bricked up and covered over. This is now home to the wood-burning stove, which heats the whole cottage - although there is also ample central heating and, of course, improved insulation. "It's lovely for guests to arrive here in winter and find the fire lit," says Claire.

Claire also brought in the interior designer Louise Thurlo of Aztec Design in London - an old friend who also worked on the Bruces' own home on the estate - and the resulting aesthetic is uniformly calm. Walls are painted in Paint and Paper Library's Stone II, III and IV, giving subtle differentiation to the walls in the different hues, while soft linen fabrics are complemented by contemporary rattan furniture. The Ercol dining table and chairs are a highlight for Claire, while fabrics by Vanessa Arbuthnott, Romo and Jane Churchill offer subtle punches of colour in the curtains, cushions and upholstered headboards. The kitchen features porcelain floor tiling with stone splashback tiling, and the same colour palette is continued into the en suites.

Claire is constantly open to inspiration while on family trips herself. "I always take lots of photos, half of my family, the other half of properties," she admits. With each property she tackles, Claire has found herself becoming more and more involved in the process, which can take six months to complete. But she says: "When you consider that this house has been standing here since the 1860s and you see the thickness of the walls and the craftsmanship that has gone into the stonework, it's worth paying that extra attention to the quality of the products used, and it's also about making it last into the future."

Glen Tanar Estate, tel: 01339 886451, www.glentanar.co.uk; DWR Architecture, tel: 01339 885407, www.dwrarchitect.com

This article was first published in The Scotsman on Saturday, 4 September, 2010