Pru irvine biography of christopher

Richard and Pru Irvine’s lime kiln house in Midlothian was shown on Grand Designs in 2008. The huge, larch-clad house was built into the hills of an old lime cement quarry in the Scottish countryside.

Pru irvine biography of christopher

Here, Pru shares the highs and lows of the self-build project…

When did you decide the plot was right for you?

‘It was the first site we were offered. We fell for it the first time we saw it, but we were concerned by the size of the project so turned it down.

When you fall in love, though, you can’t help yourself and 18 months later we came back.

Pru irvine biography of christopher columbus

We pushed the amount of work to the back of our minds. We had reached a time in our lives when we could do something like this.’

What were the most challenging aspects of the build?

‘The planning permission process was enough to try the patience of a saint [it took 20 months to get planning permission,