A House by the Shore: Twelve Years in the Hebrides, by Alison Johnson, with illustations by Christine Dodd (1986)

 

Alison and Andrew meet at Oxford and, after finishing their studies, don't want to join the ratrace. What will they do? Andrew is a good handyman and Alison is a good cook. Thinking about their interests, gradually a plan emerges: they will buy a large and derelict old house, near the sea and in the country, restore it and run it as a hotel. For this of course they need money and they decide to become teachers. After a postgraduate course in Aberdeen they find jobs on Harris, where they spend three years teaching, living in a rented house and getting to know the island, the islanders and the weather (which can be vicious). After three years they discover an old and derelict house, a former manse (Scottish term for a dwelling of a minister of the Church), near Scarista Bay, and they manage to buy it. 'We wanted everyone to come and see this miracle. Those who did were inexpressibly shocked". 'The house itself had about 19 rooms, but the six in the attic had insufficient headroom to comply with building regulations, and the two outlying single-storey wings at the front had their internal access blocked up. They and the ground floor of the back wing were the most derelict parts: very derelict indeed."  

First of all they set out to make a few rooms habitable (so they can live there) and to restore the water and electricity supply. They start to keep hens and make first attempts at a vegetable garden. At first they combine doing up the manse with teaching, but it is slow going: 'At this rate it would be ten years till we were finished". They resign in September 1977, a year after buying the manse. Months of hard work follow, repairing the roof, walls, floors, doors, windows, the list seems never ending. 

 

There are nine months between stopping teaching and opening day, and this is barely enough. Furniture and furnishings have to be bought, mostly on the mainland as very little is available on Harris. 'We were amazed and amused that bookings were coming in at all. Our attempts at publicity had been very haphazard. As we were starting with only four bedrooms we did not need to attract large numbers of customers. (...) Looking back, it is suprising anyone came at all.' On the last day their neighbours help to clean the whole house. 'Next morning we stepped out of our filthy attic into a house unnaturally clean and luxurious." Once the guests start coming the kitchen becomes Alison's domain, while Andrew is 'front of house'. There is still lots to do, doing up the remainder of the house, cleaning and ordering food, supply being a problem as little is available on Harris itself. The hotel is closed in winter giving them time to catch up.

The hotel had brought them self-confidence and a flourishing reputation - even some money. But: 'by the end of the second season, we could see it coming. We had proved to ourselves that we could what we set out to do, and after that we felt aimless, marking time until some new goals surfaced.' They keep going for a good few years though, inventing new projects, like creating a new dining room, building a cottage for the housekeeper and her family, and building a new block with extra rooms. 

The last chapter is called Dropping Out Again? They are looking for something new, but don't know yet what it will be.

On the surface this is a perfectly pleasant book. However, there were several things about it I did not like. Alison and Andrew seem to think teaching a useless activity, so I was glad to read they gave it up. Also, Alison has a way of being self deprecating which irritated me. Its seems everything they do is amateurish, falls to pieces, goes wrong, but then in the next paragraph they are running a successful hotel. And I can't stand people who can't control their dogs and who think that's funny. Alison thinks it is hilarious and devotes a whole chapter to their dog. So, all in all, not one of my favourite books!

As for a new venture, Andrew, Alison and Sarah (their daughter) Johnson now run The White Horse Press.  An interview with Sarah (referring to her childhood on Harris) can be found here.  Scarista House is now run by Tim and Patricia Martin.