The Isles of Scilly Award Winning Hut

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When Visit England award you Gold for your shepherd hut holiday home, you just know you’ve created something very special.

95 Watermill is on the Isles of Scilly, and it is special in very many ways. Think eco-friendly, fabulous location, amazing views, and a guest experience like no other.

Find out about Aisling and her family, who’ve created 95 Watermill.

 

Who we are

We are Aisling, Gaz, Zachary, Sanchia and Sylvie. Florence is our black lab puppy. We live on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, up the far north eastern end of the island in an area called Watermill. I work for the local authority and Gaz works in a vineyard (yes, Scilly makes its own wines!).

About our hut

We have a Turnkey hut, and it’s actually an ex-display model. Gaz and I got together a couple of years ago and both of us have run successful businesses, but we really wanted to do something together. We have a ridiculously big garden and the area we live on St Mary’s is relatively undiscovered and we thought we’d like to share our beautiful home with other people.

The environmentally friendly hut

We liked the idea of a hut as it makes so little impact on the environment. Our landlord is the Duchy of Cornwall and Scilly is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so we wanted something that worked with the environment. We also know that niche, quirky style accommodation without compromising on luxury is a growing market.

I found Blackdown on the internet, rang them up, arranged a visit and there was our hut! I couldn’t believe how beautifully and cleverly designed it was – it’s such a tardis. It was a snowy day, but the hut was so cosy with the wood burner and I could see it would be a hut for all seasons. I have looked at other huts but I really think that Blackdown are the most beautiful. It was also nice that they are a South West firm too.

Making the hut happen

We had to get planning permission to change the use of our garden and it was really important to the committee that we could show that it would make a difference to the tourism offer on the islands and also was low impact on the environment.

We called the business 95, Watermill as it’s the 95th hut that Blackdown made. We have loved the whole experience of buying it and it was fab having Will come to deliver it and have a celebratory beer afterwards. It was definitely one of the most hair-raising deliveries!

Guest accommodation

The hut will be let out year round for two people. It has a shower, proper loo (!), gas hob and fridge. It has a fold up/down bed. It also has a woodie for extra cosiness.

We have bought a Prakti street food outdoor cooker for outside dining.

It’s also so handy for when our friends and family come to stay given that we live so far from many of them.

95 Watermill is special because…

The hut is set in its own private woodland garden surrounded by elms (the ones on Scilly didn’t get stricken by Dutch Elm disease) and oaks, with its own wooden ladder access over a stream. There are stunning beaches in all directions – Bar Point, Watermill Cove and Pelistry are about 10 minutes stroll away. You can buy eggs and vegetables from honesty boxes just down the lane.  Scilly is magical – people come back year after year.  It’s like a tropical paradise but you can still get a great pint and a pasty! You really feel like you are somewhere exotic. Even in wilder weather, it’s amazing and you can gale-watch and get cosy in the pub and chat to the locals. St Mary’s is the biggest of the 5 inhabited islands so you can have an evening in the cheery, bustling town, head off on boats to the off islands or just unwind in a secluded spot up at Watermill.

The hut runs on solar and that was a big selling point for our planning application.

Simple pleasures

We created the interior design ourselves as we love that kind of thing, but to be honest we do want to let the simplicity of the craftsmanship sing out so we are going to keep it tranquil, serene and minimal. We want it to be luxurious so it will be high quality bedding and towels from the White Company and muted shades to match the Farrow and Ball colours of the hut.

We love its simplicity and the fact that it sits so naturally in the landscape.

Experience 95 Watermill

Guests will have a romantic, outdoorsy, nostalgic experience where you can totally wind down. We hope that they will go for long walks, bike rides, pony treks and boat trips. We hope that they love spending time with each other and on rainy evenings play scrabble, watch romantic DVDs on the little player, listen to the Roberts radio, read books, lighting the fire and snogging!!!!

We are delighted to have been awarded Gold by Visit England.

Blackdown were….

Amazing! I think Will might come to stay. We genuinely love them!

Book in at 95 Watermill via https://www.visitislesofscilly.com/accommodation/alternative-accommodation/st-marys/95-watermill

Skills

Posted on

August 1, 2018