self catering holidays in Scotland

Picture this: glass in hand, comfy seat, self seeded globe artichokes scattered about the garden like wonderful, giant thistles, cat, king of the castle on the turf and wildflower roof, llamas lazily chewing the cud, knee deep in buttercups. Down below, at the bottom of the hill beyond the fields, the village of traditional Galloway cottages of all shapes, colours and sizes, basks in the evening sunshine. Someone hands me a plate of chargrilled sausages and vegetables and tops up my glass. This is the final, halcyon evening of my self catering holidays in Scotland at Durhamhill, with memories to treasure.

When Juliet and Alan undertook the mammoth task of converting their two Georgian coach houses into holiday accommodation they had the enjoyment of their guests very much in mind. If there's been an opportunity to make the most of a view or let in an extra shaft of light it has been taken, from the tiny porthole window in the twin room, to the various shaped and sized rooflights all around the house to the large glass doors which were once the entry for the coaches in the old part of the house. I'm sitting now on a huge semicircular stone bench high up in the garden, admiring the view while from down below me delicious smells drift up. Because we've rented both wings of the house, we have the use of both gardens and each has its own stone built barbecue, designed to take plenty of food for hungry people and as usual we are welcome to help ourselves to herbs from the herb gardens.

Other meals have been enjoyed at the huge dining table in the East Wing and on the sheltered terrace beyond its sliding doors, which is a real sun trap. We can rest easy that we're not making much of a footprint here - the wind turbine provides electricity and the air heat exchange system does its bit. If we'd needed to we could have lit the woodburning stoves, but it has been plenty warm enough without.

We have had so much fun here and done some things we would never have thought of doing without the imagination and inventiveness of our hosts. I had never been in a motorcycle side car before but Alan's enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I plan to do it again soon. Another highlight was an old fashioned leisurely picnic by horse and trap, on very quiet back roads, courtesy of friends of our hosts. I have refreshed my waterskiing skills in the most beautiful setting on Loch Ken while others tried windsurfing and kayaking and spent a lovely afternoon searching out the Henry Moore Glenkiln statues which, astonishingly, are scattered about in the middle of nowhere.

Beside the main house is a second coach house converted into a space for conferences and workshops and we've had the run of this to play pingpong, table football and airhockey as well as using the projector and screen to make our own cinema with popcorn making facilities on hand - beats watching television hands down! Last, but by no means least, the highlight of this self catering holiday in Scotland for one particular member of the party was the daily feeding of the llamas and taking Lettie, the oldest member of the herd, for a walk around the field with her halter and lead with owner Juliet. There may be a tear or two when we leave in the morning.