Happy 10th Birthday Appletree Cottage

Appletree Cottage is now officially 10 years old.  Our first guests arrived on 25^th August 2016 and since then we have had the pleasure of welcoming a stream of happy visitors from all over the world.

Appletree Cottage as newly built

Appletree Cottage was built with a high degree of insulation and large south-facing windows, so the cottage gets a lot of solar gain on sunny days and retains heat in the winter. The building was clad in Siberian Larch, which has, as planned, toned down and blended in with the surrounding countryside.

The Siberian Larch has now turned silvery grey and blends in with the surrounding countryside

We planted hedges around the cottage to provide seclusion and also as a windbreak.

With self-catering in mind, the downstairs area was designed as a large open-plan space. The cottage sleeps eight people in four en-suite bedrooms. It was envisaged that many of our bookings would be groups of friends and extended families. Having a single open space incorporating kitchen, breakfast bar, dining room and living room would mean that everyone could be together and that nobody would be stuck alone in the kitchen. One of the bedrooms is situated on the ground floor to allow peace of mind for those in the party with mobility issues.

Taken just before the furniture arrived.

Furniture in place!

Appletree is heated with a biomass district heating system. This involves timber felled in nearby sustainable forests being delivered to the farm. It is then cut into half-meter lengths and split on a huge log splitter. The wood is then stacked and dried for at least three months until the moisture content is below twenty per cent. The logs are then fed into a boiler, which heats huge water tanks (3000l) in the barn. The heat is then transferred from these water tanks to Appletree Cottage and the farmhouse, ensuring environmentally friendly heating and hot water in both properties through the year.

Appletree Cottage is a cosy place to stay in winter

Christmas and New Year bookings are very popular

The cottage is open all year round, including Christmas and Hogmanay, which prove to be very popular bookings every year. For the festive season, we usually decorate the cottage with a tree and lights.

What ever the time of year, Appletree Cottage is a great place to stay and explore the many things to see and do in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park in Scotland.

Appletree Cottage is a great place to spend your holiday/vacation.

You can see a video of Appletree Cottage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU2n8_7i4dI