Talli House

A house for four adults with a field of its own

Talli House stands in the dairy country north of Kilmarnock, outside the village of Dunlop, and it is built around two people cooking and going nowhere in particular. The owners let it to adults only. It was not designed with children in mind and no provision has been made for their safety, which is worth knowing before you book.

Inside are two king bedrooms, two bathrooms, and one open plan room holding the kitchen, the dining table, and the seating. The kitchen is stocked for real cooking rather than reheating, down to cookware, knives, and the oil, salt, pepper, and herbs you would otherwise buy on the first afternoon. One bathroom has a walk-in rain shower. The other has a deep soaking bath with a window on the fields. A wood burning stove heats the living space and the logs come with the house.

Outside there is a covered porch with seating over open fields, and a fully enclosed field a dog can be let loose in. A welcome hamper is waiting when you let yourself in.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

This is the quiet inland corner of Ayrshire, farmland rather than coast, and the county opens up south and west from here. Alloway and the Burns country sit below Ayr, and Culzean Castle is further down the same coast on its cliff. Blackthorn Salt, which harvests Ayrshire sea salt the slow way, runs open days nearby.

Glasgow is the other direction, and the airport is twenty five to thirty minutes away, which makes the house workable as a first or last night of a longer trip. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs is under an hour north. Ardrossan is the ferry port for Arran, and Kelburn Castle with its painted tower is on the same coast at Fairlie.