Kinnoull House and Peninsula Cottage

03/09/2026

⛰️🐾 Clisham conquered!

A wild walk up the highest peak in the Outer Hebrides with Cal by my side. Big skies, brutal wind, spectacular views and one very tired dog by the end.

Just another day on Lewis and Harris. 💙

17/08/2026

Some days the mainland feels so close you could almost reach out and touch it. 🏔️💙

The mountains were unbelievably clear today from Peninsula Cottage window. One of those Lewis days where you stop and remember just how lucky you are to call this place home.

And obviously, Cal had to make an appearance too… although she was much more interested in rolling around on the grass with her frisbee than admiring the view. 🐾

Island life at its best. 🌊🏡✨

22/07/2026

🌊 There is a stretch of Scottish sea so treacherous that the old sailors did not blame the wind for their drownings. They blamed a race of blue skinned men who lived beneath the waves.

The Minch is the wild channel that separates the Isle of Lewis and the Outer Hebrides from the mainland, and its narrowest, most dangerous part, near the Shiant Islands, was known in Gaelic as the Sea Stream of the Blue Men. There, the stories say, lived na fir ghorma, the Blue Men, storm kelpies with the shape of men and skin the colour of a bruised sky. They swam alongside ships, conjured the sudden squalls that swallowed boats whole, and could be seen sleeping on the surface of the swell before a gale.

But they were not simply monsters. The Blue Men loved poetry, and a captain with quick wits could save his crew. If their chief rose from the water and called out the first two lines of a verse, the skipper had to answer at once with two lines that completed it, matched in rhythm and rhyme. Answer well, and the ship was allowed to pass. Falter, and the Blue Men would drag the vessel down. It was a battle fought not with sword or sail but with the sharpness of the Gaelic tongue.

Folklorists have wondered whether the legend remembers something real, perhaps the blue painted or tattooed sea raiders of the distant past, half glimpsed and turned into myth by generations of frightened sailors.

Whatever their origin, they belong to a people who knew the sea could kill and chose to face it with a poem on their lips. 💙

In the Hebrides, even the monsters demanded that you be clever.

19/07/2026

Sometimes you read a guest review and it genuinely stops you in your tracks.

Creating Kinnoull House has always been about so much more than providing somewhere to sleep. I wanted it to feel like a true home, with thoughtful touches that celebrate the beautiful Hebridean culture, from Harris Tweed and local artwork to recommendations that help guests experience Lewis and Harris in the best way possible.

Reading that a family’s daughter made such a special friend in Cal 🐾, that the little details were noticed, and that they’re already hoping to travel over 4,000 miles to return, means more than I can put into words.

To everyone who has chosen to stay at Kinnoull House, thank you for trusting me with your holiday. Every lovely review reminds me why I love doing what I do.

The Outer Hebrides really are a special corner of the world, and I feel incredibly lucky to share it with you. 💙

16/07/2026

Island life is all about slowing down and enjoying the little things. Inari sushi and a glass of bubbly before jumping in the hot-tub. Because why not on a Thursday afternoon 🥂🍣

15/07/2026

Yesterday’s dog walk looked a little something like this ☀️🐾💛

Sunniest place in the UK, machair filled with buttercups and Gress Beach almost completely to ourselves. Cal living her absolute best life with her ball, obviously 😂🎾

Days like this make me remember just how lucky we are to call this place home ❤️

11/06/2026

🥃 On the 5th of February 1941, in the darkest year of the Second World War, a cargo ship ran aground in the Sound of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. Its cargo included two hundred and sixty-four thousand bottles of Scotch wh**ky. The entire island population immediately recognised this as a gift from God, the sea, or both — and acted accordingly.

The SS Politician was bound for New York and Jamaica with a mixed cargo that included the wh**ky, Jamaican currency, and various other goods. When she grounded on rocks in the Sound of Eriskay in the early hours of a February morning, her crew was rescued without loss of life and the ship's situation was assessed as unrecoverable. The islanders of Eriskay and South Uist, living through wartime rationing in conditions of considerable hardship, assessed the situation rather differently.

Over the following weeks, the islanders mounted a salvage operation of remarkable ingenuity and thoroughness, recovering thousands of bottles of wh**ky from the ship's holds by whatever means were available — small boats, ropes, diving into the flooded lower holds in conditions of genuine physical risk. The wh**ky was hidden in peat stacks, beneath floorboards, in stone walls, and in locations whose precise identity was never fully shared with the customs officers who eventually arrived to investigate the situation with a distinctly non-Hebridean lack of appreciation for what had happened.

The customs authorities prosecuted a number of islanders for unlawful removal of cargo. The sheriff who heard the cases reportedly had difficulty keeping a straight face throughout.

Compton MacKenzie transformed the story into his 1947 novel Wh**ky Galore, and the 1949 Ealing Studios film made it famous worldwide. But the real story — wartime poverty, community solidarity, a ship full of wh**ky, and the complete conviction of an island people that Providence had arranged the whole thing specifically for their benefit — needs no embellishment.

The bottles that were never recovered are still there, under the sand of the Sound of Eriskay. The water is very clear.

18/05/2026

Blue skies, sunshine, and a very happy muddy dog on the local Shulishader coastal path today🐾☀️

Cal’s idea of a perfect day is finding the peatiest water possible and throwing herself into it without a second thought. Mine is dreading the clean up whilst secretly loving how happy she is 🤎

07/04/2026

First guests of the season are nearly here at Kinnoull House… which means it’s been a full day of pretending i’m on a home makeover show 😅

✔️ Stables painted (probably more paint on myself)
✔️ New plants planted (please survive 🙏)
✔️ Driveway swept (why does it never end?!)
✔️ Patio cleaned (briefly considered just calling it “rustic”)
✔️ Hot tub filled and ready (the real priority, let’s be honest)

There’s still a to-do list longer than my arm, but we’re calling it for today.

Time to sit in the sunshine with a well earned b**r 🍺 0% and somehow… actually decent?! Who am I.
Guests arrive soon… ready or not

06/02/2026

Love this 😂

On this day in 1941, Scotland faced a very specific kind of "national emergency"…

During a heavy storm, the cargo ship SS Politician ran aground off the island of Eriskay.

Her cargo?

264,000 bottles of malt wh**ky.

The island had run dry due to wartime rationing, so when the locals heard there was a "wee dram" washing up on the rocks, they launched a "salvage operation" that would become legend.

The ship was also loaded with 290,000 Jamaican ten-shilling notes. worth around £3 million!

The locals, thinking the foreign cash was useless in the Hebrides, didn't bother hiding it. Instead, they reportedly used the notes to light their pipes and fires while they enjoyed their salvaged wh**ky.

Customs officers were furious. They raided villages, checked under floorboards, and arrested crofters. When they realised they couldn't stop the locals from "rescuing" the cargo, they did the unthinkable...
They blew up the hull of the ship with dynamite to destroy the remaining wh**ky.

It remains the real-life inspiration for Wh**ky Galore! and possibly the only shipwreck in history to actually boost local morale.

To this day, it’s rumoured a few bottles are still tucked away in the peat banks of the Hebrides.

Be honest…

You’d have grabbed a bottle too 🥃