Plot 6, North Whins, The Park Eco-Village, Findhorn, Forres IV36 3SH

Property Summary

An extremely rare opportunity to buy an ample, elevated plot of approximately 720m2 elevated plot for a detached home, situated on the edge of the dunes, just minutes walk from the incredible beaches of the Moray Firth.

Typically plots in the Park are sold with pre-designed homes and contracts in place to build a specific home, so the ability, on this fully serviced, with mains water, electricity and drainage, to design and build your own home offers an exceptional opportunity.

 

ABOUT NORTH WHINS, THE PARK, FINDHORN

Introduction

Eco-villages offer an exciting opportunity to rethink our sense of belonging to place and to community. The Park, Findhorn, began as a pioneering experiment and has since grown to become one of the most recognised eco-villages in the UK.  The Park community strives to be ecologically, economically, culturally and spiritually sustainable. It has 90 ecological buildings, three wind generators and a biological sewage treatment plant, The Living Machine.

Bounded by protected dune lands to the North, North Whins is the ‘final frontier’ of development within the Park eco-village. Its superb location, nestled into the edge of the dunes affords immediate access to wonderful walking tracks and beautiful wild habitats, all within  a short walk of the many activities and amenities that the Park has to offer. The delightful traditional coastal village of Findhorn is within a few minutes’ walk as are the miles of white sand beach that run from Findhorn to Burghead. A home here offers the opportunity of a lifestyle quite unlike any that you may have thought possible in the UK; to live within a community of people living with shared values.

The Park is conveniently located only 30 miles from Inverness International Airport with daily access to many locations, including international gateways such as London and Amsterdam Schipol.

Vision

The development will be designed and constructed as an exemplar sustainable project creating a high quality environment with thoughtful relationships between dwellings, roads and pedestrian routes, woodlands and the dunes. Sustainably constructed dwellings will be nestled into the duneland settings enhancing the biodiversity and microclimate around them.

North Whins has the characteristics of a bowl landscape with the Dune Ridge footpath forming its natural boundary to the north. With woodland to south, Cullerne Gardens to West, Wilkie's Wood to East and existing buildings to south and east, the site is well contained.

The Masterplan approach promotes:

• An integrated design for shared outdoor spaces, boundary treatment and landscaping;


• A carefully thought-through approach to servicing


• to create features which enrich the environmental quality at North Whins;


• A consistent language of materials; predominantly timber clad buildings with a palette of colours in harmony with existing buildings;


• Carefully designed clusters of buildings which will create distinctive neighbourhoods; and


• An overall layout which ensures that the valued energy centres and ecologically significant places will be maintained as places of value in their own right.

The master plan pays respect to the significant energy lines and energy points identified in the “Listening to the Land” consultation, by allowing space around them, by using landscaping to help define them, and by allowing paths to flow through and around them.

Sustainable construction, open spaces and Biodiversity:

Construction shall give a strong emphasis to the ‘fabric first approach’ that underpins the Passivhaus standard, using high levels of both insulation and air tightness, and minimal cold bridging.

Key construction requirements include:

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber; Natural materials such as cellulose insulation, and a range of water conservation measures;


• Renewable technologies (e.g. air source heat pumps, solar thermal and PV panels, and wood burning stoves) for space and water heating;


• The use of Scottish grown timber such as Douglas fir (e.g. for post and beams, and feature trusses) will be encouraged with Sitka spruce (e.g. for structural framing) and European larch (e.g. for cladding).

Renewable Energy: The Park Ecovillage produces most of the electricity used within the Park, and this is sold on the Park’s local network.

The integrated landscape design will result in net ecological gains; with areas of sand for lichens, native trees and shrubs to form buffers between buildings, car parking and bins, and a 'wildlife corridor' from Cullerne Gardens to Wilkie's Wood and Diamond Wood.

These open, communal, ecologically rich spaces will serve as green networks that will continue to allow free movement of pedestrians throughout the site, with connections to existing footpath networks. The integration of native trees will help stabilize the steeper dune slopes and result in a generally 'wooded' expression which will include a mix of open ground, grass and heath, gorse and whins and lichens on the pure sand within defined areas. The key open space which connects East, West and North Whins, is the central area of the fire pit and dancing green, through which there are a number of footpaths. This is a culturally significant place for the existing community.

Convenience and Leisure

The appeal of this development lies not only in the opportunity to build, live and work in a community of like-minded people, but the opportunity to live in an area with virtually unparalleled outdoor offerings;  sailing in Findhorn Bay, horse riding in Roseisle Forest, walking, running and cycling on the many rural roads around, hiking and climbing in the Cairngorms. There is the opportunity to walk a few minutes from your front door to the wonderful white beaches of Findhorn with 7 miles of sand running between the coastal villages of Findhorn and Burghead.

The Park itself has a wealth of creative opportunities, workshops, exhibitions and social groups.

There is also

- The Phoenix Cate - a wonderful cafe, with an emphasis on local and organic offerings

- La Boheme – pizza, crepperie and juice bar

- Universal Hall - a wonderful theatre providing a wealth of cultural offerings