Interiors: Freda Newton’s Inverness home is built using traditional Scottish materials, but with a modern aesthetic

BUSINESSWOMAN Freda Newton preferred old, Victorian-style houses, until she bought land near Inverness and decided to embrace a contemporary look

THE first house Freda Newton built, on the outskirts of Inverness 11 years ago, was of traditional design, and even had a turret. In 2008 though, when the opportunity arose again, Freda, who is the owner and managing director of Jacobite Cruises, decided to embrace something entirely different.

“I’ve always liked traditional houses,” she says, “particularly old Victorian houses.” However, after buying 80 acres of land on the southern side of Inverness as an investment, she realised that, really, she had to build. “The views are absolutely spectacular,” Freda says. “I thought, there has to be a house here, somewhere.”

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Having chosen a spot based on the views and privacy – including stunning vistas to the hills above Loch Ness in the west, and over Inverness towards the Moray Firth and the Black Isle to the north (and yet still just a ten minute drive from the city centre) – Freda set about the lengthy process of deciding on a house style. She found Perthshire-based architectural practice, McKenzie Strickland Associates through word of mouth. “I looked on their website and loved their mix of old and new,” she says. Here was an aesthetic Freda could embrace. “I liked the fact that we could use traditional Scottish materials and finishes – Caithness slate, larch wood and wet harl – but in a modern house,” she says.

Essich Lodge, on Essich Road in Inverness, is a striking property, and credit goes to Freda and project architect Robert Johnston for creating a building that, thanks to its materials, looks dramatic while fitting so sympathetically within its landscape. The style of this interior is established from the entrance where the double height vestibule opens into the dining hall with its floor-to-ceiling window, immediately creating a sense of space and light and that all-important connection with the landscape.

The kitchen is positioned off one side of the dining hall, while on the other side you’ll find the vast double height drawing room, with full-height glazing soaking in the views and with doors opening onto the raised slate terrace and verandah. A staircase leads from the drawing room to the generous galleried living room and there are five bedroom suites, including the master bedroom on the upper level, which opens into an en suite dressing room and bathroom.

There’s also a utility room on the ground level, and a gym and a games room/snug on the first floor – the latter designed for Freda’s son Robbie, who is now 20. “I thought this would be a great den for when he has his friends round, but of course that doesn’t happen – they just use the main living spaces,” she says.

Little wonder when you consider how spacious, light and view-filled these areas are. “For me, living space is always paramount,” Freda says, and creating this sense of volume was central to her approach. The drawing room downstairs is slightly more formal and more of a summer space, although there is a log-burner here, as upstairs, for chillier days – whereas the living room has a relaxed informal feel and is a cosier retreat come winter.

The design process evolved through various permutations. Initially, there was a wavy roof over the entrance hall, but it would have been overly complex and costly. There were two staircases in the layout at one point, and the kitchen was also double height. “Then I realised the cooking smells would have gone everywhere,” Freda says. “We realised we should have a roof over the kitchen, and that then developed to create the sitting room upstairs.”

As well as the energy efficient wood burning stoves, Essich Lodge also features a geothermal ground source heat pump, which provides the heating, which is underfloor on the ground level. The house is also highly insulated and features Scandinavian double glazed windows.

Work started on site in November 2008 and was completed the following May. Building through a winter, particularly in recent years when there has been more snow, is tough – the rhone pipes collapsed with the weight of it that winter – and Freda project managed the build herself. “I used separate trades, as I did on my last house, but that was half the size of this,” she says. “If I was doing it again, using a sole contractor would make it much easier.”

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There was also so much sourcing involved in a project of this scale. When choosing a kitchen, Freda admits that she was tempted to go super-contemporary with high gloss finishes but opted instead for a softer look with a walnut kitchen by Smallbone of Devizes, with black granite worktops and Miele appliances. Slate floor tiles (from Mandarin Stone) complete the organic palette. The oil-fired Aga was a must-have. “I’ve always lived with either an Aga or a Rayburn cooker,” Freda says, and there is also a gas hob for when the Aga is switched off.

In designing the bathrooms, Freda chose Villeroy & Boch fittings with Porcelanosa and Fired Earth tiling. She turned to Rona Douglas Interiors for soft furnishings, having worked together before. There are some vibrant punches of colour throughout, not least in the drawing room where the wall-mounted stove is offset by a rich blue wall. “I love blue, it’s my favourite colour, so everything is a variation on that,” Freda says of the various tonal accents.

When it came to the exterior finishes, Freda changed the initial specification for American Red Cedar. “I’d been looking at buildings that had gone silver and didn’t want that,” she says. Instead she chose larch, which was supplied by Russwood, and is coated in a Sikkens finish that retains the grain without fading or peeling.

As Freda says: “This house was built with everything I felt I’d want in a house.” The spaces are fantastic and the specification is top end. There’s also a double garage, connected by a carport, and 4.6 acres of grounds – ready for the next owners to create a wonderful garden.

So what about Essich Lodge has exceeded expectations? “What I love about this house is the views,” says Freda. In the master bedroom, the bed is placed centrally, with double doors granting a view towards Inverness, the Kessock Bridge and the Moray Firth, as does the bath in the en suite, which was positioned by an elongated window. Sitting out on the verandah of an evening, Freda can soak in that same vista. That will be hard to beat. k

• Asking price £950,000; contact CKD Galbraith (01463 224 343, www.ckdgalbraith.co.uk)

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