The Waterhouse Retreat

A single holiday let, not a resort: The Waterhouse is a wooden lodge hand-built by the owners, Martin and Sharon, with a living green roof, inside their six-thousand-square-metre garden a few kilometres from Kirkcudbright, in the Galloway countryside. It sleeps four (a double bed plus two bunk beds) and is rented as a whole, with a kitchen, a pellet stove and a wooden deck jutting out over the largest of the three ponds; below it are a hot tub heated all year round, a fire pit and a barbecue. The garden is the real attraction: densely planted with roses, buddleias, clematis and honeysuckle around the ponds and a stream, tended to attract wildlife, with swallows nesting under the eaves and bats keeping insects at bay. Naturism is an option, not a rule: anyone who wishes can be undressed anywhere in the garden and in the hot tub, but no one is asked to, and it is one of the few places in Scotland to say so openly. There is no television except for DVDs, there is no phone signal and the internet connection is minimal: those who go describe it as a complete break. Around it are the coast and secluded beaches of the Solway, Galloway Forest Park and the 7stanes cycle trails, and the owners welcome guests with home-made bread and a bottle. One dog is accepted, by arrangement and with a cleaning supplement. Suitable for a couple or a small family looking for silence and nature; not for those seeking a naturist social life or the facilities of a holiday village.