An electronic gate sweeps noiselessly back. I drive through it, past a stand of mature trees, and park outside Dun Taigh.
The house was built around seven years ago and is one of four properties in a small development on a country lane roughly equidistant between Brechin and Montrose.
A sleepy chocolate lab named Coco wanders to the door to greet me, along with owner Seonaid Christie.
“We bought the house while it was still under construction which let us make a few design changes,” Seonaid, 39, continues.
“I added a walk in larder which is my favourite thing about the whole house. We also decided to get a hot tub for the decking – it’s great in summer but also lovely in winter, sitting toasty with a glass of wine while the ground’s covered in snow.”
The main door opens into a spacious hallway with a large timber staircase. Stepping through into the kitchen reveals a huge space that’s flooded with sunshine from a full wall of sliding doors. “You can open them completely to bring the outside in,” Seonaid explains.
To one side of the kitchen is a dining room while at the other side is the family room. There’s a playroom on the ground floor which, judging by the heaps of toys, is well used by Seonaid’s two young girls.
There’s an en suite guest bedroom on the ground floor as well as an impressive snooker room.
This huge space has a full size snooker table, a well stocked bar and a wall-mounted television and sofa.
“Our house is probably the largest of the four in the development,” Seonaid says. “Ours has a separate garage which allowed us to turn the space that is the garage in the other houses into this snooker room. It’s a great space for when you’ve got friends round – the men tend to congregate in here while the girls are in the kitchen or lounge.”
The stairs open onto what is probably the home’s showcase space – the upstairs lounge. Exposed beams and a wood burning stove create focal points for after dark, but during the daytime it is the sweeping countryside views from the triangular wall of glass that draw the eye.
To either side of this are two en suite bedrooms while the master bedroom lies along its own corridor.
Almost a self-contained flat, the master bedroom has a dressing room, en suite and a corridor to a gym or study room above the garage. This room also enjoys a wall of glass looking south over farmland.
Decking wraps around the house and the back garden is laid to lawn, with fields beyond.
“What we like most about the house is being in the countryside but in easy distance of Montrose, Aberdeen and Dundee,” Seonaid adds.
Dun Taigh, Muirton Of Ballochy, By Montrose, is on sale with Savills for o/o £520,000.