Snug on the Bay

The garden ends at the sand

What separates Snug on the Bay from most coastal lets is how little sits between the house and the water. The patio faces the sea, the grass runs down from it onto Shandwick Bay, and the garden and parking are fenced, which matters if you have arrived with a dog.

Inside, it is arranged around the view. The master bedroom is on the ground floor with an en suite that has a large walk-in shower, two sinks, and a separate WC. The main bathroom is downstairs too, with a bath and a rain shower over it. The second double is upstairs, and outside its door there is a seat in front of a floor to ceiling window over the bay.

The lounge has a wood burning stove and the kitchen runs to an induction hob, an oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a coffee machine, and a washing machine. Firewood is included, so the stove is lit rather than shopped for. The hot tub sits at the side of the house in a covered area angled at the firth, and there is an outdoor shower, which the owners take out of use from November to February because of the frost.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

Shandwick is the middle of the Seaboard Villages, with Balintore and its harbour just north and Hilton beyond that, on the Easter Ross stretch of the North Coast 500. The Shandwick Stone, a carved Pictish cross-slab, stands above the village, the Mermaid of the North looks out over the firth at Balintore, and the Seaboard Sculpture Trail joins them up. Tarbat Ness lighthouse is out at the end of the peninsula.

The owners list nine walks from the door, running from the shore path to Rockfield to the Fyrish Monument inland, and they point people across the firth on the Cromarty ferry for the dolphins. Glenmorangie is the nearest of six distilleries they name, and Royal Dornoch one of five golf courses.