Mouse Cottage - A Perthshire Love Affair

Photographs: Nigel Lumsden Photography

WHEN MOUSE Cottage appeared on BBC Scotland’s Home of the Year in 2020, owner Penny Kennedy discovered her property had more charm than even she realised.

For Penny, her love affair with the cottage in Strathtay in Highland Perthshire started from the first time she saw it. “The moment I came up the lane and saw the cottage on the side of the hill, I thought … oh dear, this is it,” she recalls.

“The lady that was showing it agreed. I sat on the edge of the bed upstairs – in what is now my bedroom – and I knew I had to find a way to buy this.”

However, it wasn’t until the cottage appeared on TV that Penny realised she wasn’t the only one who had fallen in love with it. “I loved doing the show and it was so nice that the judges saw my house as a proper home,” she says. “People have said such nice things about it.” 

Penny took up residence in November 2016. Situated in the middle of a former country estate which is now a golf course, the location was idyllic. Built in 1850, the cottage had retained many of its original quirky features and had a lovely welcoming atmosphere.

“It was called Broom Cottage but I’m not particularly a fan of broom so when I found little mice carved into several of the beams in the kitchen, I thought Mouse Cottage was much more apt,” Penny explains.

The house was in reasonably good condition so apart from adding a studio and vegetable patch, Penny took a year to settle into her new home. “After a long career in the gift packaging industry I went into retail and then ran a holiday business on the south shore of Loch Tay, but I missed my creative life hugely,” she says.

“The first thing I did was build a studio, and I started painting and creating collages, lino cuts and print-making which I now sell.”

By the end of the year, Penny decided she needed a regular income. Her solution? Redesign her home so that she could run a B&B business and turn her garage into a self-catering apartment.  

Before she could open her home to guests, however, there was the small matter of turning a basic concrete garage into a comfortable and stylish holiday let. “My previous home, Rock House, had been designed by the wonderful, local architect Colin Smith at Casa and had won a Saltire Award,” she explains.

“While there wasn’t as much to do here architecturally, Colin came on board to do my drawings and I worked with a wonderful builder, Jo Penfold. I have done several other projects over the years but it was quite daunting doing this on my own.

“However, I had a terrific team – Jo and I project-managed it and she was unbelievably patient.”

To maximise the space in Mini Mouse, the obvious moniker for Mouse Cottage’s little sister, Penny decided to “borrow” from the main house. She explains: “There was a very old-fashioned bathroom downstairs and there was a massive water tank upstairs but no bathroom.

“I put in mains water and added a bathroom upstairs and then we closed off the downstairs bathroom from the main house and knocked it through to the garage. The original garage area became the dedicated space for sleeping, cooking and eating but it now has the added benefit of a generous-sized bathroom.

“We removed the roller shutter door and Jo found someone who could custom-build doors and windows to fit the space. We fitted underfloor heating and I added a terrace outside, put a gate on to enclose it and then started on the interior decoration.

“I’m quite partial to tongue and groove so I decided to fit that on the ceiling as well as the walls and then I found this amazing thing called an Elfin kitchen. It has a dishwasher, sink, cupboard, hob, fridge and freezer – all you do is put the plumbing in and plug it in. That was a fantastic buy – there is no constructing of worktops or anything like that, it’s very clever.”

Now that Mini looked the part, the final stage was to road-test her and the perfect opportunity came along when renovations commenced on the main house. And having inherited some money after her mother died, Penny wanted to get everything in the cottage structurally right.

“My goal was that for the rest of my life, it would only require redecoration,” she says. “The roof was fine, the stonework was good, so I put in a new heating system, replaced the flooring and redecorated throughout.”

Fitting a window into the gable end brought more natural light into the sitting room and kitchen, and adding another bathroom and a little library upstairs meant Penny could offer B&B while retaining an element of privacy for herself.

“The B&B part of the cottage is a private suite with a little entrance hall with access to the bedroom which has lovely views south over my garden and to the west over the golf course and hills,” says Penny. “Two steps up from the entrance hall is a private sitting room/library which leads to the large bathroom with a big double-ended bath.

“During the renovations I moved into Mini Mouse with Alfie, my little Norwich Terrier, for a month and it was such fun. However, the house is done now apart from me buying it the odd present – which it does not really need – but the garden is ongoing. It’s a delightful cottage garden and I’ve created lots of lovely seating areas.

“My latest project was the addition of a ‘sitooterie’ which I absolutely adore. It isn’t completely closed in, but it provides shelter and it has an outside stove to keep one toasty. It’s a lovely space to enjoy an evening drink or simply to sit outside and look at the stars.

“I love having guests to stay whether in the house or in Mini, and especially since lockdown, guests are just so happy to be here. Strathtay is lovely and we seem to have our own little microclimate – it’s nice to be able to share this beautiful part of the world with other people.”

Mouse Cottage B&B and Mini Mouse self-catering can be booked through mymousecottage.co.uk or tel: 07799 678 067.