The Five Turrets

From the outside it looks like a small castle: turrets, crow-stepped gables and Victorian stonework on a terrace above the Ettrick valley. It was built around 1870 as the coach house and billiard room for the neighbouring Ettrick Lodge, remodelled in the Scottish Baronial style by Edinburgh architect David Rhind, and is now Grade B listed. A photojournalist and weaver spent a year restoring it and opened it as a holiday home in 2018.

The inside is the surprise. A ceiling in the old billiard room was opened up to reveal the full height of the roof, and that space is now the middle of the house: triple height, with sofas grouped around a Burley wood burning stove and the owners’ photography and weaving on the walls.

The kitchen opens onto it, with a long counter and bar stools, an induction hob, an AEG oven with a steam function, and Bosch fridge, freezer and dishwasher. The oak dining table seats eight in front of two tall windows looking out across the valley. An oak and glass staircase leads up to the mezzanine library: three sofas, around 600 books, and a 49 inch smart TV on 30MB broadband.

Four bedrooms, named after the local rivers. Ettrick is the largest, on the ground floor, suitable for guests with limited mobility, and can be twins or a super king. Tweed is a super king or twins with a window seat. Teviot is a double with the best views in the house. Yarrow is a king with its own turret. All four have Casper mattresses, Egyptian cotton bedlinen and individually controlled radiators.

Both bathrooms have a walk-in Bristan rain shower and heated towel rail, and the upstairs one adds a deep bath. There is also a boot room with a Belfast sink, a utility room with washing machine and dryer, and an entrance hall that doubles as a picture gallery and holds a piano that spent years in Selkirk’s Victoria Hall.

The private garden has seating for eight, apple, plum, damson and cherry trees, and a locked shed with room for eight bikes.

Selkirk sits on the A7, an hour south of Edinburgh and two hours north of Newcastle, with the Borders Railway terminus at Tweedbank five miles away. Shops and a pub are a couple of minutes’ walk. Walking, cycling, fishing on the Tweed and golf are all close, and the owners can arrange a personal chef, e-bike hire or a guided nature walk.

Picked out by The Guardian, The Times and the Sunday Times, which named it in its top 25 UK holiday cottages.