Press : the finicky wandererJournal

George Orwell wrote “1984” in Barnhill Farmhouse in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. Ian Fleming brought Bond to life at his Goldeneye Estate in Jamaica. Virginia Wolf took us “To the Lighthouse” from her writing hut in Sussex, England, while Henry David Thoreau “went into the woods” to “live deliberately” in a humble cabin along the shore of Concord, Massachusetts’ Walden pond.

With co-working spaces and cool cafes available for nomad-writers in cities across the world, perhaps the idea of the “writer’s retreat” seems archaic and unnecessary. Not so for those in need of less chatter and a slower pace to hear their creative callings. For writers and artists who toil at their respective crafts, a haven to escape the quotidian and recharge can make a big impact on creative output.

Finding the perfect retreat – one that provides solitude, comfort, easy access to nature, and aesthetic pleasure – is like finding the Holy Grail. As a writer who’s also obsessed with evocative interior design, I believe I just found mine at the Woodshed– a gorgeous, modern Scandinavian style cottage that invites you to “coorie” (the Scottish equivalent of hygge) in the rugged Scottish hills.

Its owners, graphic designer Jenny Cowan and photographer Michael Rummey, who also help run the family’s Eastside Farm collaborated with Edinburgh-based Roxburgh McEwan Architects to ensure this incredibly cosy holiday rental does justice to its stunning location within Scotland’s breathtaking Pentland Hills Regional Park.

“We wanted to move away from the solidity and introversion of traditional stone-built farm buildings to something with a lighter touch, but still as sturdy. This meant views out to the hills, and an awareness of the outside when within. It also meant one main double-height space rather than the more traditional approach of compartmentalising into smaller spaces,” says Cowan, a descendent of Penicuik papermaker and philanthropist Alexander Cowan, whose family has owned Eastside estate for generations.

From the cottage, you can easily get to West Kip, East Kip and Scald Law, three of the nine major peaks, or the gentler rises of Cap and Green Law. There was something mildly addictive about walking the Pentlands as each day I found myself increasingly eager to head out in seek of new trails. If like myself, you do not have a car, expect to leave the world as you know it behind for a full immersion into green hills and glens, sheep meadows, bird-filled heather moorlands, Scot Pine and Larch forests, waterfalls, and reservoirs, and wake up each morning to the splendor of nature, and a mind ready for creative pursuits.