Who lives in a house like this?

Of course it doesn't look exactly like this any more - but the eagle eyed among you will instantly recognise Little Duchrae.  It went up for sale at the beginning of the year and we are happy to announce that the new owners have just moved in. 
I'll let Paul introduce himself: 

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​Good morning from Little Duchrae. My wife and I have just recently moved into our new home after spending the last six years in Aberdeenshire. 
 
Viewing Little Duchrae came about more by accident rather than design. We had initially dismissed the house from a shortlist, not least because we thought the advertising didn't show it in the best light. 
 
Time was limited for viewing the shortlist of houses and had to be completed in one day. We had 9 houses in 10 hours in a route that took us grom Kirkcudbright, up through Laurieston, New Galloway and out past St John's Town of Dalry. In the middle of the day we had a time gap and I added Little Duchrae to pass the time.
 
When we arrived at the house, even without entering, we knew there was something special about the place. It was the dreariest of days but this didn't squash our enthusiasm. 
On entering, we found the house to be in good order with no damp smells, even though it had been empty throughout the winter. More importantly, there were no signs of little visitors and our keen nosed Cairn Terrier, Raasay, showed no signs of excitement either.
We spent so much time at Little Duchrae we were late for the next appointment.
 
Our hearts were set on the house and by the evening and a few glasses of wine later, everything else paled into insignificance. However, during the night my wife had a series of disturbing dreams, probably due to some of the horrors we had seen during our viewings. There was only one thing for it. We would have to go back and look again. Obviously we wouldn't get into the house but we could look around the outside before heading back to Aberdeenshire. This we did and on a morning with the sun shining and our Collie, Skye chasing the birds around the paddock, we made up our minds that we had to have Little Duchrae.

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​One thing the estate agency advertising did succeed in was to spark my interest in an author I had not heard of before. I love old, well loved books and love their smell. I have a number of early edition copies of HV Morton, Black's Guide,  Sir Walter Scott etc. I now have an ebay alert set up and aim to collect and read as many SR Crockett as possible. I have just started on "The Men of the Moss Hags."
 
We have a few teething problems with the house, including a problem with ph balance and turbidity in the water supply but even after day one it felt we had come like home. Little Duchrae is a small piece of paradise in a hectic world. We love it and long may it continue.
Paul Scrimshaw

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We wish Paul and his wife (and dogs) all the best in their new home and look forward to sharing Crockett stories with them in the months and years to come!
​Cally Phillips