Make your own Hobbitat

Stuart Grant bought the 200-year old cottage as a wreck with no roof and no doors in 1984, and spent decades turning it into a delightful space filled with colour, wood and stained glass. Social media has lit up this month with photos of a ‘hobbit house’ discovered in Scotland, yet its 90-year old owner-builder has revealed he’s never watched Lord of the Rings – in fact he lives almost completely off the grid.

He has been inundated with visitors to his home in Tomich, near Inverness, after his house was posted on a French tourist board’s recommendation for north Scotland – with visitors comparing it to the hobbit homes from Lord of the Rings.

Stuart doesn’t have a mobile phone or use the internet and no longer drives due to his age, but he loves getting out and meeting people and was happy when all the French people started visiting.

Stuart paid £600 for one acre of land which had a house and the cowshed – where he now lives – on it. He doesn’t care about living a life of luxury, insisting he was content to build his dream pad out of cheap or secondhand items.

He said: “I built it out of rubbish. I don’t think there’s anything special about it. I got the timber from neighbours and had to buy screws, nails and paint and cement. I don’t have luxuries myself, I’m quite happy to be poor. I feel richer than very wealthy people because I’m very contented.”