Owners Neil and Mary Gourlay have unveiled Three Glens House in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, a carbon-negative guesthouse located in the center of their farmland.
The property is a sustainable, energy-efficient, ultra-modern eco farmhouse with scenic views, featuring fresh produce from the farm and ski chalet-style service with a live-in chef and concierge. Locally based Mark Waghorn Architects completed the design.
Full height glass doors in a large living room open electronically onto an elevated outdoor decked balcony. All of the house’s external walls have been insulated with wool from the sheep living on the farm, and the stone used in the building was taken from the surrounding fields. The underfloor heating is fed by a ground-source heat pump, and supplemented by a wood-burning masonry heater set into a stone wall. The building’s design is airtight, so mechanical ventilation and a heat-recovery system were added to sufficiently circulate air.
Other eco-friendly features include electricity from the 100kW turbine on the hill, water from a bore hole, solar thermal under heating, triple glazing, and oak cladding from wind-felled trees on the land. In addition to seats made from the farm’s cows, the roof is made of tuft and fittings are reclaimed. Old railway sleepers are used outside and inside as furniture, and reclaimed slate flag stones upcycled from a Victorian greenhouse.
