I came across Bridge Cottage by chance. I had been looking around Skye for a while for a house to renovate, and had put a bid in on a traditional cottage at Glendale. Unfortunately, my bid was not accepted.
I was on a visit looking at "houses" on Trotternish - all of my viewings turned out to be little more than cow sheds. I was all for returning to England, despondent but my farther had spotted Bridge Cottage previously. We decided to drive to Dunvegan and take a look. I had found what I wanted - the right house in the right condition, in a great location, and at the right price.
I put in an offer in for the house in Summer 2000. There was a title deed dispute, which held the process up, but my offer was accepted just before Christmas.
I wanted a house that I could renovate. I did not have much money to spend, and I had an ambition to renovate. I am not really interested in building new houses - I like the idea of bringing an old building back into use, and keeping it's history alive. When we arrived at Bridge Cottage for the first time I was ecstatic.
I looked through the window and notice the water pouring in through the ceiling. The plasterboard had all come down, and had turned it a mass of mush on the floor. I manage to get a key, and we got inside. The house was infested with dry rot, wet rot, wood worm.....it had the lot! It smelt damp and like a mushroom farm. Water was pouring in all over the place, but I saw the potential. It was a fantastic spot.
The basic structure of the house was sound. Most of the wood was infested with wood worm and dry rot, and it would all have to be removed, but it was fine for a few years.
The main problem was the flat roofs. Flat roofs generally are a really bad idea, but a flat roof on Skye in an exposed position - I think not! They had all failed, and were having a drastic effect on the whole building.
My first task was to completely gut the house from top to bottom. Everything was removed, except structural parts of the building, and the timber frames for the internal walls. It took three of us a week of solid work to gut the house in February 2001. I then installed temporary electrics, sockets and lights. I also reconnected the water supply. The weather was fantastic, heavy snow and the temperature did not climb above zero most of the time. The water in the toilet cistern froze while we were there!
The next plan was to shore up the flat roofs and make temporary repairs to get the building water tight. The repairs were done during a summer holiday in 2001. We replaced sections of the flat roofs at the back, and totally replaced the front roof including rafters and structural timbers, which had been attacked by dry rot. Me and my farther did all the work ourselves.
That was it for a year while I had building plans drawn up by a local architect - Alasdair
Alldridge who works for Wittets in Broadford. We then applied for Planning Permission and Building Regulations approval for the main works.