The lack of updates on this page reflects the slow progress on the build. That is not to say that we have not seen a lot of change in 2024.
It has been a big year for our family and our move to The Knock. At the start of the year we agreed new plans with our builder, AW Laing, for the house and the steading and submitted these to Moray council in July. Laura created the requested archaeological survey of the building which we we will be sharing on this blog in the new year. We also had a renewed bat survey, only to discover that many of our existing winged tenants have decided to find more stable accommodation going forward.
All this leaves us hopeful that we will be able to start work early in the new year!
In the meantime we decided to make the initial move north from England and move into temporary accommodation next to Tormore Distillery, which is 4 miles north of the Knock as the crow flies. The week after our planning was submitted and just a day after our son’s last day at school in England, we packed our bags and drove north, leaving our son with the shortest summer holiday he will likely ever experience!
In this short break, we stopped in at Aviemore Bikes, a shop we can’t rate highly enough, where they equipped us with all that we needed to make the most of the wonderful bike tracks and landscape now on our doorstep. After a brief excursion to the west coast of Scotland and the Isle of Harris, we set about enjoying our new life in Speyside, exploring Bike Glenlivet, the Speyside Way and getting to know our new community. One of our biggest fears was that day-to-day life would not live up to the frequent holidays we have spent in Scotland – so far we have actually found far more to enjoy living here that just visiting. From the warmth of the people around us to the madness of chasing tractors through the hills in the pouring rain, everyday has been full and exciting.
Living closer to the Knock has meant we can experience it in all weather conditions and see how beautiful the surroundings are in every style of light. There is always something new to discover. In addition we have started to get to know more of our neighbours and join in with the Avonside community, something we hope to do more of in 2025.
In November, just as we experienced our first snow days in Speyside, we completed the sale of our house in England, cutting the final ties to Buckinghamshire and life in the commuter belt. We are thankful for all the friends we made there and look forward to seeing them in Speyside when our house is finally finished.
So as we end what has been a turbulent year, we are still full of optimism and positivity about our small project and the life we are hoping to build along side it. We were not so naïve to think that putting a house back together in the state that the Knock has got to would be an overnight job, though it can still be frustrating that so much time is spent just to get through the paperwork. That being said, it has meant that we have had time to better understand what spaces we will need in our house and consider how to build these in to the existing plan.
Lastly, we hope we will be more active on this blog in the coming year and be able to post more progress on our Instagram page so that we have something substantial to look back on next Christmas. You never know… we might be able to write our next end of year blog post sitting at our kitchen table (or more likely a work bench) in the Knock itself.
