From city lights to country life
Rhiannon Batten meets the former fashion editor who
found herself in the wilderness of Nairn and set about filling the gap for
holiday cottages in a region stiff with B&Bs and grand hotels but nothing
in between
Saturday 31
January 2004 01:00
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/from-city-lights-to-country-life-76330.html
One of
Europe's last great wildernesses is not, perhaps, the obvious habitat for a
couture-clad It-girl, but Isabella Cawdor insists she's much happier living in
a forested valley overlooking the river Findhorn in Scotland than she was on
the London party scene. "I never dreamt about living in the middle of
nowhere the way some people do," says the 37-year-old former fashion
stylist. "I'd dreamt about falling in love and having children, but ending
up here was a complete accident."
Born Lady
Isabella Stanhope - the younger daughter of the Earl of Harrington - and
brought up in Limerick, Isabella was working as a fashion editor for Vogue when
she was introduced to Colin Campbell, now the seventh Earl Cawdor. At the time
Colin Campbell was working as an architect in New York so, for a year, the
couple conducted a transatlantic love affair. But the early death of his father
prompted Colin's sudden return to Cawdor Castle and the 60,000-acre,
14th-century family estate in Nairn - and the end of Isabella's metropolitan
way of life.
The couple
married and, for a while, Isabella continued in fashion, mapping out freelance
projects for the likes of Bruce Weber, Mario Testino and Annie Leibowitz from
the wilds of Cawdor. But after having three children in quick succession -
Jean, now six, James, five, and Eleanor, almost four - she decided to put her
sense of style to use closer to home, developing some of the cottages on the
estate into rental properties.
"When
I first visited Cawdor I thought it was the most amazing place I'd ever seen -
except possibly for Patagonia and Montana," she enthuses. "I'd
travelled all over the world with my job but I'd rarely been anywhere as
breathtakingly beautiful. Everyone knows about the west coast of Scotland, but
the thing about Nairn [on the mid north-east coast] is that it has this vast,
open sky. In Britain you're not used to that." When Shakespeare put Cawdor
on the literary map in Macbeth, the King describes Cawdor on arriving, saying:
"This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air/ Nimbly and sweetly recommends
itself/ Unto our gentle senses." There was one blip on this good-looking
horizon, however - there was hardly anywhere to stay. "There were B&Bs
and grand old hotels but there was nowhere in the middle," explains
Isabella. "There are so many people today travelling all over the place,
and on the phone the whole time. What they want when they take time off is to
go somewhere peaceful and beautiful but also comfortable."
So, she set
about filling the gap. "I didn't do any research in the UK. I just took my
inspiration from the travelling I'd done with work," Isabella admits.
"As a fashion editor I'd been everywhere from Tokyo to Ethiopia, and I'd
been really spoilt, but I think there's a fine balance between super deluxe and
real comfort. Feeling comfortable isn't necessarily to do with staying in
five-star places with fitted carpets and air conditioning. At Cawdor I wanted
it to be more about peace and quiet, proper food and just enjoying this vast
landscape."
The
resulting seven cottages have been a blast of fresh air through the traditional
British self-catering scene. There are no packets of stale shortbread
masquerading as hospitality or bottom-bruising sofas slowly capsizing in the
sitting rooms. Instead it's all old-fashioned comfort dressed up in chic new
packaging. Towels are fluffy and white, walls are simple, clotted cream, the
kitchen has everything you need (cafetières and stainless-steel pans) and
nothing you don't (melted plastic spatulas or garish crockery) and the floors
are either sleek, polished wood or cosy coir matting. More original still, you
can also "order in" shiatsu treatments. "You have to be
disciplined when you're designing a holiday cottage, though," warns Isabella.
"You can't make things 100 per cent your own, full-on, style. You need it
to be a bit more neutral so that it fits in with what more people want."
Not that
it's all bland minimalism. Her own full-on style, it turns out, is "like a
gypsy caravan" and there's an appealing hint of that in the cottages, with
original stained-glass windows in one cottage porch, warm velvet drapes in
another and painted farm chairs in most of the kitchens. If that still sounds a
little restrained, there is always Drynachan Lodge - Cawdor's largest rental
property - an established house that comes complete with antlers locked to the
wall, blazing log fires, staff on hand to do the cooking and space for 20
guests.
For someone
whose career began in the fashion industry Isabella is, surprisingly, as strong
on function as she is on form. "It's no good just looking pretty,"
she chirps. "No one wants to rent somewhere with a rickety old bed that
they can't actually sleep in. And the hot water has to flow fast and
furiously." Cooking is another passion. "I've always been a glutton
for delicious food and the wild-food side of where we live really excites
me," she says.
Anyone who
comes to stay gets a list of local suppliers, and tips, for instance, on who's
the best butcher in town.
She will
even shop for you so that you have supplies there when you arrive. "Some
people want to have it all laid on," she says. "They don't want to
pitch up and fight through the jungle. They want to know that they've got
plenty of food, that the shiatsu treatments are booked and that they're
scheduled in for riding the next day."
If Isabella
sounds unusually sympathetic to the needs of frazzled guests she is speaking
from experience. Besides looking after the cottages, and three young children,
she also runs a location and production company, organising photo shoots for
magazines and props and casting facilities for films. Thanks to her, the
Beckhams managed an unperturbed introduction to the Highlands a few years ago
when they stayed in Drynachan Lodge to be photographed for the cover of Vanity
Fair (the scenery stole almost as much attention as they did).
Isabella is
relaxed about the competition. "Several people have asked if they can look
around the cottages as they want to do something similar. I always say: 'Yeah,
sure'. I don't think it's good to guard things," she shrugs.
Apart from
old habits. Proving she hasn't quite left the fashion world behind she says,
"look at the Hermès Birkin bag. That's been ripped off everywhere on the
high street but it hasn't made the real thing any less valuable."
The woman who put the Highlands in Vogue
Isabella Cawdor never has to visit a supermarket - she
can live off the land on her Scottish estate
Interview
by Nicola Jeal
Sun 13 Apr
2003 16.33 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/apr/13/foodanddrink.features11
'If I'm
popping down to London,' says Isabella Cawdor, 'I'll ring Rose (Gray, co-owner
of the River Cafe) to see if she needs any mushrooms, or maybe a couple of wild
salmon for the restaurant. If it's the season, I might take her 20 brace of
grouse.'
Ten years
ago, the only interest Isabella had in food was eating it, and then only in
fashionable restaurants like the River Cafe. As a stylist for Vogue and Elle
magazines, when she 'popped' over to Paris, New York, Mexico or the Caribbean,
her cargo was wearable, never edible: suitcases were packed with designer
clothes ready to be worn by top models like Kate Moss, Stella Tennant or Helena
Christensen.
Today,
Isabella, 36, wife of Colin, the seventh Earl of Cawdor and twenty-fifth Thane
of Cawdor, and mother of three, is a woman with a mission. She wants to promote
the local produce of the Scottish Highlands, much of which can be found on, or
around, Cawdor estate, near Inverness, where she now lives.
It was
seven years ago, following the death of Colin's father, that she moved here
from London so her architect husband could take over the running of the
family's 60,000-acre estate. 'It was a shock for me when we first arrived. I
didn't have a clue. The place seemed so wild. Now I love the extremes. One day
I will be in London having meetings with photographers like Mario Testino [who
pay to use Cawdor as a fashion shoot location] and the rest of the week I will
be up here,' she says, looking at the view from her home, which almost
straddles the River Findhorn.
Her nearest
neighbours are a couple of hills, one river, a loch, and a few miles away.
'What I can't stand is country "lite". I would hate to live in
chintzy Wiltshire. I love the extreme wilderness.' The ex-Voguette, however,
hasn't exactly swapped her Manolo Blahniks for Wellington boots - a pair of
zebra-print stilettoes with mud on the heels sit by the kitchen door, and this
is a woman who pulls on suede chaps, a purple velvet coat and a fur hat to go
riding - but she is passionate about her new life.
Now she can
talk for hours about the 'joys of foraging' for cep and chanterelle mushrooms,
wild sorrel, elderflower for cordial, samphire, and juniper berries to burn as
incense, or 'the importance of sourcing' for produce, like hot-smoked salmon
and peat-smoked sea trout from the smokehouse on the Isle of North Uist (01876
580209).
Colin's
stepmother currently lives in the fourteenth-century Cawdor castle, where he
lived as a child and which he still regards as home, despite a family feud
about who should reside there. For now, the Campbell clan - including Jean,
five, James, four, and Eleanor, three - call nearby Carnoch home. It is two
mid-nineteenth century stone houses joined together by a brilliantly designed
modern extension, which forms a courtyard that overlooks the river, making it
the perfect sun-trap for outdoor eating.
After the
couple finished Carnoch, they set about renovating six derelict workers'
cottages belonging to the vast Cawdor estate. Each stands in glorious
isolation: one near the loch (where you can fish for brown trout, and cook it
for supper), another in the woods looking towards the Moray Firth, a larger one
in the river valley shadowed by the Monadhliath mountains, and so on. They now
accommodate an urban crowd, on weekend breaks or a week's holiday. This is the
business that Isabella runs, and you know, even before you enter, that each
rental cottage will look just as if it could have jumped off the pages of Elle
Deco.
'I did look
out of the window when we first moved up here and thought, "Oh my God, I'm
28, I 'm used to a busy life, flying here and there". I got into a
neurotic spin. I had no children then, and I knew I had to work.' It all began
with Drynachan, the estate's old shooting lodge. The couple renovated the
property, installed a young South African chef, and began attracting a
non-shooting set. So, along with the shooting parties, there are now celebrity
get-togethers and photoshoots - including one for Vanity Fair magazine
featuring the Beckhams - and cookery courses, hosted by the likes of Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall and Rose Gray.
'It was
hearing Hugh and Rose's enthusiasm for the local produce that really gave me
the food bug. They both made me realise how lucky I was to live here. And
Scotland has really changed in the past couple of years.
'When we
arrived it was difficult to buy seafood. It was ridiculous. All the best stuff
went straight to France. Now we can get good seafood from Celtic Seafare (0134
986 4087, who supply the River Cafe with scallops); or sweet-milk cheese and a
semi-soft carola rind washed in Glen Moray whisky direct from the local Wester
Lawrenceton farm (01309 676 566) which has an organic cheese-making unit using
milk from its small herd of Ayrshire cows. The children watch it being made.'
But
Isabella's favourite shopping spot - apart from Manolo Blahnik in London - is
Kirsty's farm, just down the road and purveyor of 'the best bacon in the
world'. Kirsty McPherson is one of the last locals to farm the land around
Cawdor, her part of which is dotted with brightly coloured, clapped-out
tractors, as well as chickens, geese and dogs running wild. Kirsty inherited
the farm 20 years ago when she was 21. Her pride and joy are her 20 pigs.
'We're not like a commercial farm where pigs live a few months,' explains
Kirsty. 'Mine are a year old now. When we feel we need to sell one, we ask
around. For example, I know Isabella will have one for the spit at the lodge
during the season.'
By now, the
children are running after the pigs. Lady Jean Cawdor, aged five, is trying to
wear a bloody deer's head, that she has found on the ground, as a mask. 'I
never thought my life would be like this, but I can't imagine living in London
with the children,' says Isabella. 'They are just too wild now.'
· Cawdor
cottages, sleep between two and 10 and cost from £230 for three nights.
Drynachan Lodge sleeps 18 and costs £5,600 for seven nights, fully catered,
including three staff. Inquiries: 01667 402 402
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