In 2013, Jill Macnair and her husband, Neil, bought a field on the edge of Loch Tay in Perthshire. The loch is a long, narrow stretch of dark water flanked by the Ben Lawers mountain range. The area had made a lasting impression on the couple almost 10 years previously when Macnair’s father had led them on a cycling expedition that skirted the south side of the loch. “The beauty of the landscape hit us both,” Macnair recalls.
Years later – married with two kids and living in London – the young family were on holiday on the Isle of Mull when Neil saw an ad for a field with planning permission. “We weren’t particularly thinking of doing anything like this,” says Macnair, “but we had such lovely memories of the area. On the drive back home, we took a detour to go and see it.”
