Scotland’s Home of the Year is back.
The beloved BBC Scotland show returned to our screens on Monday.
Interior designer Anna Campbell-Jones is one of three judges, alongside architect Michael Angus and lifestyle blogger Kate Spiers.
They scour the length and breadth of Scotland to find the country’s finest new homes.
Anna, 53, says: “It’s a tremendously fun show to do. When the producers first contacted me about doing the show I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to be associated with anything that was negative or judgemental.
“The great thing about the show is its positivity. It’s not my job to criticise what people have done with their homes. I look for things that surprise and delight me.”
Now in its fourth season, every episode focuses on a different region of Scotland. The winning properties from each episode go through to a grand final where Scotland’s Home of the Year is crowned.
Behind the scenes
The viewer gets to meet each home’s owners but Anna and her fellow judges go in blind. She continues:“We never get to see the owners until the very last episode when we meet the ones who are in the final.
“The production crew goes in ahead of us – sometimes we’re lurking down a lane in a blacked out van. Then the owners leave and we go in for a look around. Of course the worst thing is we never get to meet the dogs.”
Anna had never met her fellow judges Michael Angus and Kate Spiers before but quickly bonded with them. “Filming is quite intensive. We often do two properties a day and spend a lot of time in cars and on ferries together.
“We do get along really well. I hope our camaraderie comes across on the screen.”
The first episode of the latest season featured homes from the Highlands, including a small cottage in Fort William and a church conversion in the Black Isle.
Meanwhile, the second episode, going out on Monday, looks at properties in central Scotland. Two of the three houses showcased in the episode are in Fife.
Easter Cottage, Charlestown
Dorothy and Ricky Steedman own Easter Cottage in Charlestown, on the Forth Coast. The 200-year old house was built by the manager of the nearby lime kilns.
The couple bought the house in 2020. “We had sold our house in Edinburgh and were thinking about where to spend our retirement,” Dorothy explains. “We did one year living in the countryside, in Prestonpans, and a year in the city – on King Street in Edinburgh.
“In the city we missed having a garden so when we saw this place we fell in love. We had our offer accepted the day the Prime Minister announced a lockdown and we got the keys in July.”
The beautiful cottage has a semi-open-plan L-shaped living room, kitchen and dining area. The country kitchen is particularly special, with a lovely waney edge wooden worktop and shelving.
“We had a fantastic joiner who spent about six months working on the house,” Dorothy continues. “He made the shelves out of pieces of elm that were in the garden. It was the joiner who suggested we apply to go on Scotland’s Home of the Year. He was proud of his work and wanted to see it on television.”
Yoga space
Dorothy’s favourite space is her yoga studio. Converted from an upstairs bedroom it has three lancet windows which look over the garden and out to the Forth estuary.
“I gave up my career as a graphic designer when I was 50 and retrained as a yoga instructor,” Dorothy says. “Every day starts with yoga and meditation.”
As well as renovating the interior of the house the couple had the garden overhauled. Today it is a welter of colour from its roses, shrubs and other plants. Behind the house is a patch of natural woodland where gardeners have created deer paths and a pond Dorothy likes to meditate beside.
The renovation work took around 18 months to complete. “Really we’ll never be done,” Dorothy admits. “It needed a lot of work done when we bought it. I think that’s what was putting off other people from buying it.
“We’ve already done more to the house than we ever intended to. But when you take on a house as old as this you’re really buying a hobby as well as a home – especially when there’s a big garden as well.”
Dorothy, 72, and Ricky, 73, have grandchildren nearby. With its garden and woodland Easter Cottage is the perfect place for the children to play.
“We really do love it here,” Dorothy smiles. “We looked all over for our retirement home – as far as Prestonpans and Dundee. As soon as we saw this we knew it was perfect for us.”
Scottish Vybe, Dalgety Bay
A few miles along the Fife coastline in Dalgety Bay, Angela and Paul Young own the Scottish Vybe. The 1950s house has been given a dramatic makeover by the couple.
“We’ve always lived in Dalgety Bay,” Angela says. “Paul’s parents live three doors down. When the elderly man who lived in what is now our home passed away his son wanted us to have the house, so we were able to buy it without it going on the open market, which was lovely.”
Work commenced literally immediately. Angela continues: “We got the keys and Paul was in the house for about an hour before I arrived. By the time I got there he’d taken down all the upstairs walls. Paul runs a joinery company and he had about six lads on site. He didn’t waste any time.”
Built in the late 1950s the Scottish Vybe was originally owned by a Norwegian sea captain. He took the unusual-for-the-time step of making the property an upside down house, with the living room upstairs and the bedrooms on the ground floor. “It was quite unusual for Scotland in that era but upstairs is where you get the fantastic views over the sea,” says Angela. “Being a captain he wanted to enjoy those views from his living room.
“That wasn’t the only thing that was futuristic about the house when it was built. They even put in a laundry chute! We can drop laundry down and it lands right next to the washing machine.”
Renovating twice
The couple moved in six years ago. “We’ve renovated the house twice since then. Paul spent about six weeks on it when we moved in. That was what you usually do with a new house – redoing the wiring, new bathrooms, and just making everything nice and neutral.
“It’s over the years since then that we’ve put our own personality on it.”
Hidden lighting artfully illuminates the Scottish Vybe’s interior and exterior. At one end of the garden is a terrific timber roundhouse with open fire. The lounge has huge first floor windows and Angela’s favourite part of the house is the upstairs balcony, which has fantastic views over the sea to the Lothian coastline.
Angela, 45, and Paul, 49, live at Scottish Vybe with their four children and four dogs. “There’s a lot of us in there but it’s a big house and it never feels crowded,” she says. “We’ve got two living rooms so usually we’ll be in the one upstairs and the kids will be downstairs.”
The couple are big fans of Scotland’s Home of the Year. “We really love watching the show. We sit down and watch it together every week. It’s such a nice show and we love looking around other properties.
“We’re very proud of what we’ve done with our house so we decided to put it forward for the programme. I was delighted that we made the top three in Central Fife.
“The people who put the show together are so wonderful. We even hosted them for drinks when they’d finished filming.”
Scotland’s Home of the Year is on BBC One Scotland on Monday April 11 at 8.30pm. Previous episodes and seasons are available on iPlayer.
