When the setting is as dramatic as the windswept terrain of the Scottish Highlands, it’s best to leave interiors simple. Which is why, when tasked with saving an abandoned, century-old stone house in the Scottish countryside for conservationist/hotelier group Wildland (the same owners behind Killiehuntly and Glenfeshie Estate), Edinburgh-based architecture firm GRAS (founded by rising star Gunnar Groves-Raines, son of Nicolas Groves-Raines, the architect behind Killiehuntly) left the stone exterior intact but stripped the interiors. Now the rooms are “a series of finely detailed oak boxes” with oversized windows looking to the wilds outside. Kyle House—named for the shallow loch it overlooks—is available for stays, “tailor-made for two persons with extra beds for one to two small children.”

Take a look, then send an email to inquire about availability (there’s no online booking system—”we like to talk with you,” the hoteliers say).

Photography by Martin Kauffman via Kyle House.

Above: The stone house overlooks the Kyle of Tongue loch and is the only inhabited house to have an unobstructed view. It’s thought that it was built over a century ago using stone from Dun Mhaigh Broch, a 2,000-year-old structure (the remains of which are still visible on a nearby hilltop), and when the team began work, it was abandoned and leaky. To bring the structure up to date for 2019, the team kept the exterior traditional, fortifying it with stone, slate, and lime.

Above: GRAS kept the interiors limited to “a simple material palette of stone, timber, metal, and glass,” with a series of interconnected “oak boxes” fitted inside the existing frame. Here, one of the “boxes” houses the living room.

Above: The living room has a tightly edited color palette as well, with a grey velvet couch and shearling chair.

Above: Inset wooden shelves counterbalance the large window across.

Above: The interiors are clad in Danish oak which, here, forms a low window seat for looking out at the moors; firewood, all cut from the grounds, is stacked beneath.