In most cases country living involves a handsome but draughty old stone house or a warm but boring new build.
The small cluster of homes at Russell Main Steading have the best of both worlds.
They’re new builds, constructed five years ago, but with their stone walls and traditional tile and slate roofs they could easily have been standing for a century or more.
The homes are nestled at the bottom of a field between Elmwood Golf Course and the River Eden, a short distance from Cupar.
A long private drive comes off a minor road between Springfield and Cupar Muir, making it a very quiet and private location.
Roy and Nancy Holland moved to The Cobbles from Burntisland in 2014.
“We had a huge house and our kids were grown up,” Nancy explains. “The crunch point came when we realised neither of us had been upstairs for at least three weeks.”
The irony, as the couple are happy to admit, is they’ve moved from a huge home to one that’s merely big.
“We looked at some smaller places but we wanted a spacious kitchen and living room,” Nancy continues. “We do make better use of the space here and we have plenty of room when the grandkids come to stay.”
The couple bought the house off plan and were able to make a number of changes to fit their needs.
A wall was deleted, turning a separate kitchen and dining room into one open plan space that’s great for entertaining.
They added a feature wall of split shale tiles behind the dining table and also put a wood burner in the living room. “We’re so well insulated you can heat the whole house with it,” Roy says. “If you leave the doors open the heat flows right through.”
The living room has a full length window gazing west and glazed sliding doors to the rear garden. The kitchen has French doors out to a large stretch of decking which is ideal for summertime barbecues.
Upstairs are three large bedrooms, with the master having an en suite bathroom as well as a dressing room.
An air source heating system keeps rooms at a pleasant temperature all day long.
There’s a private rear garden and decking to the side of the house, as well as a driveway. The couple had a section beside the driveway cobbled – hence the name of the house – using cobbles left over from the Edinburgh trams project. They also had a stone wall built to further separate their entrance from their neighbours.
Ray, 60, and Nancy, 61 enjoy the tranquillity and seclusion. Their friendly cockatoo Floyd loves the riverside walk that runs along the Eden into Cupar.
“The views and the peace and quiet are the things we’ll miss most,” Roy says.
The Cobbles, Russell Main Steading, Cupar, is on sale with Galbraith for o/o £325,000.