A calm, peaceful rural idyll? Yes, but only some of the time…

If you happen to be out on the Perthshire hills on a grim, blustery day, and you suddenly hear happy voices and laughter, pool balls clacking, glasses clinking and perhaps the strains of lively music, don’t worry, you haven’t lost your marbles. You’ve just stumbled across the party barn. That’s not its official title, but it’s not surprising that Sophie Rowland and her colleagues at Dualchas Architects gave it that affectionate nickname, considering the building’s newfound role as a hub of entertaining, fun and relaxation at a home on the Stroyan estate, not far from the pretty village of Killin.

Stroyan has been in Sophie’s client’s family for generations, but the barn, part of a large steading behind a farmhouse on the estate, had lain unloved and underutilised for many years before Sophie, a director at Dualchas, first saw it. “Our client grew up on the estate but now lives in Yorkshire with his partner,” says the architect. “They come and stay in the farmhouse quite a lot, and they frequently have friends and relatives to visit. They do a lot of stalking and fishing and all sorts of country pursuits, so there are always wet clothes and muddy boots around, and the farmhouse didn’t really have a drying room or other facilities.

“What it did have was this huge steading at the back of the farmhouse. It was quite a stunning building, but it had been used as little more than a dumping ground for years. It was in a pretty bad state, especially the roof, which was crumbling and falling in. But it had so much potential.”

When Sophie spoke to the clients about converting the steading, it quickly became clear that entertaining guests in a stylish but fun space was high on the agenda. “They wanted an area where they could host a lot of people,” she recalls. “They wanted space for a pool table, big areas to sit around a fire, a kitchenette and a dining space, so they could be in there at Christmas, for instance, or if they had loads of people over. We dubbed it the Party Barn Project.

“But they also wanted a separate area they could come into first when they’d been out on the hills, so they could take off all their wet gear then go through and have a cup of tea and relax. So, we created the main space, but there’s a drying room and boot room as well.”

The party barn area is just one section of the larger steading, which sits amid breathtaking mountain scenery. Despite its poor condition, Sophie could see from the outset that she had something special on her hands. “We do a lot of renovation projects and quite often you’ll see an old building that has been badly extended and lost its original essence. It’s a shame, because you end up suggesting removing all these bits that someone has spent money adding but which just don’t work.

“But the beauty with this one was that it hadn’t been altered much. There were a few lean-tos, but the architecture of the original building hadn’t really been changed. You could immediately see it had so much potential.

“It’s always a magical part in a project when you first see an old building, and you think, ‘What can we do with this? What can we make it into? What are the client’s aspirations?’”

This is an excerpt from issue 165 of Homes & Interiors Scotland. Want to read more? Buy your issue here.

A curved extension transforms this sumptuous Arts & Crafts villa.

A curved extension transforms this sumptuous Arts & Crafts villa