Luscious Loch Leven

We live about ten minutes away from Loch Leven. It ranks high among my favourite places in Scotland, and the more time I spend cycling, driving or walking around it, the more I'm drawn in by its compelling beauty.

Loch Leven has something for every taste and interest. We love cycling and the recently opened Loch Leven Heritage Trail provides a perfect opportunity for a few hours of traffic-free pedalling. Or lazy walks, if that tickles your fancy. The path is of consistent excellent quality and it is flat for the entire way. On sunny days you bump into all kinds: I screeched to a halt the other day when I saw a rhodesian ridgeback. This one had no ridge, and his owner told me the breeders wanted to get rid of it, and he rescued the puppy.

Vane Farm belongs to the RSPB and it is a bird-lover's mecca. I'm a complete ignoramus where birds are concerned, after two years in Scotland barely able to distinguish a goose from a moose, but this place has me bristling with excitement. In the coffee shop with spectacular views over the loch, one can feed on organic grub food and excellent coffee, all the while learning more about birds of a certain feather. The shop stocks all kinds of bird paraphernelia, including live worms, and it's a good place to buy gifts.

What gets me most about Loch Leven, though, is its history. Every time my eye catches the ruins of the castle in which Mary Queen of Scots was held hostage, I'm reminded that she must have looked out over the same waters and stared at the same hill while blethering with her servants and working on a tapestry. Or maybe she made use of the sultry spring light to convince George Douglas to help her escape. I wonder whether she appreciated the beauty or was just worried as she wrote letters to her baby son from her lonely window post. This is the wonder of Loch Leven.

More on how to buy a hoose

Our beautiful stone cottage was not to be. Sigh.

The process of buying a property in Scotland is a wee dilly, like lots of things oover here.
When you've found the property of your dreams, you have to contact your solicitor and through him/her, either make an offer on the place, or register a note of interest. Sounds straightforward so far? It's not.

Houses are advertised as either 'Offers Over...' or fixed price. If you and 15 other hopefuls like a place, and say you've all put in offers or notes of interests, the sale moves to a closing date. And on the day of the closing date - everybody by this time has put in an offer - the seller decides who gets the prize. Charming. And once you've put an offer in, you have to wait to hear whether you've got the house or not, because, if your offer is the lucky one to be accepted, you are bound by law to buy the place. Except if your mortgage is not approved or five million other things that can still go wrong.

In effect, you bid on a place and hope for the best, like gambling. And don't think if you put in a monstrous offer just because the abode is your heart's desire, it will necessarily be accepted. The seller can choose anybody's offer, so if he/she doesn't like your name or solicitor, tough.

But the sun is shining today, always worth a mention!

Hoose hunting

How does one buy a hoose in Scotland?

1. Search for a property. We have big dreams, and had a look at this.


It comes with its own island, which is handy, but alas, we lost all our money betting on Floyd Landis last year.

2. So onto something more modest.

This was perfect, within our price range, but unfortunately I would have had to commute 4 hours per day to work.

3. A more realistic proposition for our part of Scotland was this:

But we felt faint at the idea of committing ourselves to suburban bliss at this tender age.

4. We decided to make an offer on this.


Please, please please, let it be ours!