seaside cottage Scotland

Delightful, traditional seaside cottage overlooking the harbour and beach in the picturesque village of Pennan, Aberdeenshire.

Hidden away in a small, sheltered cove with its own tiny harbour and white sandy beach, our first sight of Pennan delights us as we round the final bend and come down the hill into the village. It's a perfect wee Scottish fishing village: traditional whitewashed cottages hug the shore, curls of woodsmoke drift up from warm hearths in the still air and clear blue water lazily laps the shoreline. We spot the red phone box by the harbour, now quite famous after featuring in the film 'Local Hero' and the Pennan Inn, known for its Thai curries and soon we've found our lovely seaside cottage, looking just as it does on the photos, a pretty blue and white stone house close to the beach and harbour.

Inside, we discover a smart, modern kitchen with a fantastic view of the harbour, where we can sit at the table or in the window seat and watch fishing boats quiety chug in and out or spot bird and sea life. We find everything we could possibly need in the kitchen, including a basket of tasty homemade local goodies to get us started - plenty for tea and breakfast next morning - and make short work of the delicious Aberdeen butteries with homemade jam, which soon become a feature at teatime.

There have been many such welcome extra touches here at our harbour cottage and no cries of 'Oh, why didn't we bring the such and such...'. A good collection of books and games, buckets and spades and fishing nets are all here for guests to use. We spent a very pleasant final evening in the main living room, snuggled down by the stove with a good bottle of malt, watching the house's copy of 'Local Hero', exclaiming over locations that we recognised.

We are spoilt here at Harbour House with a choice of two sitting rooms. The front room has a lovely sea view and we've found it a great place to sit during the day, enjoying comings and goings on the sea and in the harbour and making the most of being on holiday by the seaside. At the back, the main living room has lovely comfy chairs and sofa and is spacious but cosy, decorated in pretty, natural colours with lovely wooden floors, warm exposed stone and beams; here we've spent some very pleasant evenings relaxing by the stove with a good book or film. A rather unusual, wooden staircase with a nautical feel to it takes us upstairs to the bedrooms.

Our master suite is luxurious - we can step from our novel Japanese soaking tub onto a warm, tiled floor before slipping into fine linen and best of all, we can see and hear the sea from our window. Along the landng, the equally comfortable twin room overlooks the harbour and is decorated in a maritime style, which is repeated and exaggerated in the lovely children's room next door. It's great fun to climb up into a neat cabin bed, draw the curtains across and drift off to sea...