Booked New Year 2010/11

Print property details

Traditional self-catering cottage close to the sea on the Orkney Island of Hoy

Melsetter House on the Orkney Island of Hoy, recognised as one of the gems of the Arts and Crafts movement, was created out of an 18th-century Laird's house by the architect Richard Lethaby for the Midlands industrialist Thomas Middlemore and his Highland wife Theodosia, in 1898.

As well as the main house, Lethaby also worked on the various estate buildings, including the cottage.

Today, Stac Cottage provides a unique opportunity to stay within an Arts and Crafts country house setting.

Recently renovated, the single storey detached cottage is furnished for four, with a long barrel-vaulted living room with sofa bed and stone fireplaces at either end, one double bedroom with an en suite bathroom and a twin bedded room with a separate shower and toilet.

Guests are invited to enjoy the surrounding gardens, and Lethaby's chapel of SS. Colm and Margaret is immediately opposite.

Hoy is the largest of the Orkney Islands apart from the Mainland itself. It contains the most varied landscapes of all, ranging from the hills and moorlands of the north, to the agricultural countryside of south.