YOLO Journal Issue 12 - Flipbook - Page 59
precipice. For those looking for more
privacy (and with a healthy budget),
nearby Kinloch offers an exclusive-use
experience along similar lines.
To stay at Lundies is to feel like
staying at an old friend’s house in the
country, with all the ease and informality that brings. The service is warm and
familiar. Of course, you can order a gin
and tonic in the afternoon, but you’re
also welcome to help yourself and make
your own. Breakfast is served by candlelight, while supper (a hearty offering of
uncomplicated but skillful cooking) is
taken communally. The library of books
is yours to take, as you wander the halls
in your socks. Lundies will never try to
impress you—that comes quite naturally.
This lightness of being extends to the
interiors, a well-arranged collection
of fine art, excellent books and classic
Scandinavian furniture within a
Scottish vernacular manse (a church
minister’s house).
This curation of old Highland
coziness with 20th- and 21st-century
Scandinavian design is the magnum
opus of Swiss designer Ruth Kramer,
a master of putting people at ease in
design-led spaces. Her sense of taste and
restraint run through the entire concept.
I have vivid memories of documenting
the restoration of this 18th-century
home during its journey back to splendor. The attention to detail in building
conservation—far beyond what any
sane commercial developer would deem
necessary—was astonishing.
The real beauty of Lundies House,
however, is found beyond its picked-andpointed walls—out there, in the wild.
Within a short walk, cycle, or drive
are Tolkienesque mountains, ancient
forests, and beaches where azure
waters lap onto white sand ensconced
in heather-clad hillsides peppered with
wildflowers. One is invariably always
around an hour away from a shop, a cafe,
or another living soul.
The landscape invites you to stop:
stop checking your phone; stop visiting
places as an exercise in ticking boxes;
stop rushing from one hurried experience to another; stop worrying about
the next hour, afternoon, or day. Stop
and watch the seals play with abandon
on the shoreline, or follow the family of
deer as they quietly, confidently make
their way across the open moorland.
Be present. There’s quite literally and
deliberately nothing else to do.
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