The Road Trip - house sixteen

After New Luce, we headed east through Dumfries and Galloway to this lovely steading on the outskirts of Dumfries itself. Again, time is not only a function of distance in Scotland but the nature of the road itself and this journey of just shy of 80 miles was 2 hours - 40 mph average.

Just 1/2 mile off the main A road into Dumfries down a quiet single track road this is quite a bit to digest: Greenbogue Steading, Torthorwald - OIRO: £150,000. An L shaped steading, in approximately 1.4 acres, with outline planning to make something quite spectacular - potential for the development of 1 or 2 dwellinghouses, subject to appropriate planning approval. Flat farming countryside and open views, not too exposed.

Greenbogue Steading is a former traditional agricultural building and courtyard, situated in a superb location with uninterrupted countryside views. A preplanning application was submitted in 2021 for the change of use of the steading to form 1 or 2 dwellinghouses. The application was supported, provided a number of considerations were met.

The conditions referred to relate to the change of usage. There are stringent rules for changing farm buildings into residential buildings, but the main condition was the retention of the original design and style of the building so that the 'feel and character' of the area was not spoiled. But, with the 100 year history and rustic charm of this building, why would you want to change it? The existing building is serviced by mains water and electricity. Any purchaser should satisfy themselves with the services that are provided to the site.

Having booked a viewing and then cancelled it due to the ferry debacle, we were lucky enough to be able to reinstate our original appointment as late notice. So, the estate agent was there to open up the buildings for us.

This building perfectly fit Liz's idea for a converted steading - a building full of character and history with a square floorpan layout and central courtyard area filled with a 'dry garden' of rockery/coastal plants. On three sides would be a house with large, bright rooms and open-plan living and on the fourth side a large garage for storage, cars and motorcycles and a workspace. And, with land left over to plant an orchard and create some sustainable food growing and power generation.

But, the fabric of the building could only be described a 'shagged' with huge cracks in the stone work and rotten rafters, and the quality of stone used (for an agricultural building) not very good and way beyond our appetite and capability. Basically, it's a knock it down and start again job, and in knocking it down you're likely not to be able to recover much of the stone to use again. So maybe it could be two £400,000 barn conversations but someone's got to have deep pockets and good knowledge of all the trades to make this a money spinner not a money pit. Despite the lovely view, and Liz's dream of property development, we moved on.

This was the last house on this trip which took in 7 properties in 3 days, over 1000 miles in the car and a ferry trip to the Outer Hebrides. And, so, exhausted as we were, we chatted late into the evening as we made the final leg of our long trip towards home (via parents' houses) about what we would miss the most if we moved away;

Kids are the main consideration, although hopefully both fully independent in a couple of years time, moving to Scotland would inevitably make it hard to see them unless they followed us. We don't think we're the kind of family that will live within spitting distance of each other - we want them to fly the nest to wherever may suit them best and would hate for them to feel obliged to stay close to mum and dad. This is probably borne out of our experience, where we both moved 100 miles away from home at 18 and have made a life on our own two feet, living 2 hours away from both sets of our parents. But, we would miss them intensely and the most important thing for us is to see them as often as possible. The thought of going from having them around at home every day, to seeing them just a handful of times a year is the saddest thing for us.

Once we started talking about our current life we began to realise just how interconnected we were in Leamington after 20 years. Friends and neighbours, church and the hobbies we have developed here in the West Midlands are a much bigger consideration than we had realised. I (Liz) have spent the last 20 years feeling like I haven't made close friends in Leamington - as an introvert I find this difficult. But, on reflection, we have amazing parties with all the neighbours each year, I go out with the girls from work now and then and there are always people we can chat to at church or at the places we volunteer or when we go to tai chi class or wild swimming group. And, as it gets closer to our planned 'exit date' of November 2023 the thought of actually walking away from it all gets more and more scary. The idea that I will one day walk out of the office for good, and say a final goodbye to the people around us is quite a terrifying prospect, and I am genuinely afraid that we will be not just alone, but lonely.

And yet we're both excited by the prospect of a new chapter in our lives and don't feel that fundamentally anything here should hold us back from the adventure of a new life up North and we would hope that many friends would keep in touch and come and stay from time to time.

Access to 'cultural events' is minor but important. We both like to go to a concert, big show or headline act, but many times we have to drive over an hour or make a weekend of it anyhow so living in Scotland, we hope, will make a marginal difference.