Secret Scotland

All you hear is stillness. All you see are mountains, clouds, islands. And the sea. You are right above it.

The stillness belongs to a time long past. The cry of a sea eagle, a hush of leaves in gnarled trees, the wind carrying the sound of breaking waves.

The Brochs of Coigach near Achiltibuie on the northwestern coast of the Scottish Highlands could be your home for your next holidays, a self-catering experience like no other one..

Brochs are Iron Age roundhouses. The Brochs of Coigach are the real thing - but in a modern context. They are situated at the end of a remote cul-de-sac on a hillside, where deer and sheep are grazing. Outside, they are raw like uncut gems, while inside luxurious, airy and light.

Have a peek inside. It’s a bit like stepping into Tardis. The Brochs may appear small from the outside but when you step through the door you realise how huge they are, the one even more so than the other. A floor area of ten by fourteen meters, and walls rising nearly up to four meters.

But don’t just take our word for it! The American INTERNATIONAL LIVING MAGAZINE’s travel writer Tim Ward recently wrote:

“I love archeology, and I have wanderedr about many excavated brochs, so the thought of living in a modern version of one for a week absolutely thrilled me. At Achiltibuie we stayed in a modern incarnation of an Iron Age Broch.

Our nouveau-broch was utterly gorgeous, inside and out. The owners, Reiner and Sheilagh Luyken, definitely improved on the Iron Age original. The exterior walls are fitted stone, and the floor plan is still circular. But there’s a wide bay window that gives a full 180-degree-view of Loch Broom—one of the largest sea lochs in Scotland. Instead of farm animals in the basement, electric underfloor heating kept us warm on cold nights. And they’ve added a fully modern bathroom, sauna, and kitchen.

Our Broch was all about architecture. I was entranced by how they used a steel central pillar as the main support structure to create a spacious interior. Outside, a natural grass roof provided insulation and made the broch seem to flow seamlessly into the landscape. From the road above, it was all but invisible.

For their efforts, Reiner and Sheilagh received a 5-star rating by VisitScotland and a Gold standard of the Green Tourism Business Scheme. They were shortlisted for two prestigious architecture awards, and the German travel magazine Merian named The Brochs of Coigach as one of the "100 Best Dream Destinations for Two in the World."

Heedless of these prestigious honors, sheep and rabbits gamboled in the field outside our bay window each day, joined in the evenings by wild deer. In the long summer evenings the light was different from night to night. Sometimes Loch Broom would glow like a sparkling sapphire. Nearer dusk, the mountains beyond the loch would turn deep purple. Sometimes the clouds would reflect hot pink from the setting sun. Once, a full moon rose over the still water, leaving a streak of silver on its dark surface, like a shining inverted exclamation mark. We felt truly immersed in nature.

"There’s no need for internet here," I said to my wife Teresa (though our wifi in fact worked just fine). "Our windows have the best streaming service in the world."