If your priorities when buying a property are sunsets, seclusion and the seaside, then Morroch Bay and Beach Cottages is the place for you.
This rare find has just come on the market, via estate agents Galbraith, for offers over £495,000.
It’s situated on the western edge of the Rhins of Galloway peninsula, and is 2.5 miles south of Portpatrick and 7.6 miles from Stranraer. One of their neighbours is the five-star hotel, Knockinaam Lodge, which is just one bay along.
Across 27 acres, this sale incorporates a four-bedroom coastal home, Morroch Cottage, which operated as a tea room in the Twenties and Thirties, a one-bedroom cottage called Southern Croft, a boating shed, and a shepherd’s hut. The land is also designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, as it features significant rock formations known as the Glenkiln Shales and Hartfell Shales, which date back over 450 million years.
We asked the current Derbyshire-based owner, Susan Nash, to tell us more.
Why are you moving on?
Well, for one, I’m not getting any younger. We’ve had it for 36 years. My husband died 12 years ago. I’ve been doing it by myself, though I’ve had a lot of support from the couple who look after the place for me. We let it out as a holiday cottage. It’s four and a half hours drive from our home, but we never let that stop us from visiting. However, my boys are growing up and it’s just time to move on. It’s not for them to take it over, as they’ve got their own lives and families now. We’ve gone up an awful lot, over the summer and throughout the year. We’ve had New Year’s Eve there, and Easter, and all the normal holiday times.
Any interesting guests over the years?
We had a filmmaker who made an independent film there one time. We’ve had calls from TV companies who’ve been filming to see if it was available for like three months at a time, but it’s usually booked up. It’s generally families and large groups who stay, because we can have about 14 people there in total.
It’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest, tell us more.
There are some of the oldest rocks in Britain, I believe. We’ve had people come and do some studies of them. The fossils that they found in the bay were creatures that were in the southern hemisphere at one time.
Have you had any of your own good wildlife spots?
We’ve got all the normal wildlife. There’s deer, and we’ve had pods of dolphins and a family of seals who’ve been coming for years. There were wild goats there when we first bought the place and they’d just appear on the beach, but they’ve died away now. We’ve watched peregrines teaching their young how to hunt, and seen buzzards.
And how are the sunsets?
Absolutely perfect. You can see Northern Ireland, and there’s no light pollution. Once it’s dark, it's dark.
Tell us about the history of the building
In the Twenties and Thirties, Martha ran a tea room in the main cottage. They’d have boats come in from Portpatrick who’d stop in the bay and go for tea there. Magnus Magnusson came to visit in the Fifties to report that Morroch Bay, when there was a croft here, produced Scotland's earliest new potatoes. The couple who had it before us, he was a builder, and they restored the main house and extended it. And the other little cottage at the other end was just a store cottage. We’ve done a lot down here, and obviously we’ve modernised it over time.
When did you add the shepherd’s hut?
That was about 2013 and my husband thought that would be a great idea as it’s basically an additional bedroom. It was fun getting it down there, because it was in one piece and we had to get it down a cliff. We had three Land Rovers and a trailer to do the job. I was at the other end of the bay with my eyes closed.
In the Forties, there was one couple who lived in the property, and when the wife was in labour, she was tied to a sledge packed with straw and drawn up the cliff by two horses.
What are your happiest memories there?
It’s where my eldest son took his first steps and had his first haircut, and my other son rode a bike without stabilisers for the first time. It’s always been about sharing it, and my husband’s parents visited, my parents visited, our siblings have visited, our friends and our kids’ friends have been there. My son had his wedding there in 2024 and he married an Australian girl, so we shared it with Australian people. We had yurt and a marquee down there, and great fun was had.
Who do you hope will buy it?
It’s been hard to decide to sell. It’s taken me about 18 months to make that decision. We hope whoever buys it will love it the way we have. We let it out, but it was our home, and one for our kids, and it’s been this very important place. My husband used to say that we’re just looking after it. I’m just hoping that somebody who buys it will respect the land and carry on doing that for future generations.
