And finally…UK’s first off grid holiday home developed in Perthshire

The Kranôg units come in a variety of sizes and can be used as flexible accommodation, work or leisure space, with the choice of one, two or three bedrooms. Buyers can even add optional extras such as a wood-fired hot tub and an outdoor firepit.

As they sit on stilts, the architecturally designed Kranôg units do not require foundations and their eco-friendly design means no annual running costs or electricity and gas bills.

All the green technologies have been researched and chosen specifically for the British climate.

Kranôg is the brainchild of founder and managing director Fiona van Aswegen, who was inspired to create a new type of accommodation unit for the UK, incorporating the outdoors into the design and encouraging the user to spend more time in nature.

The first unit will be situated on a private estate near Dunkeld, where it will be rented out to holiday makers visiting the area and used as a showhome for Kranôg. It is expected to be launched in time for Christmas 2018.

“Kranôg came from the ambition to get back into the tourism business when I moved back to Scotland after living abroad,” said Fiona. “I had been running a successful luxury business in South Africa and loved the industry so wanted to get into the self-catering tourism sector in Scotland.

“I discovered that in Scotland, land was really expensive in the tourist hot spot locations, planning permission was difficult and the type of accommodation that were available to buy as self-catering options were often outdated, so I set about trying to improve things as I couldn’t understand why we weren’t already operating off grid self-catering accommodation in Scotland.”

Kranôg invested two years of research and development work into the design and technology of the units, to make sure they are off grid but still economically viable, costing no more than a high-end static caravan or park home and yet with a 40 per cent reduction in ongoing running costs.

The units are manufactured in Perthshire and are mostly built off-site, then constructed on site in around four weeks.

“I am working with a fantastic, and award winning, local building company. I have made a huge effort to keep all suppliers as local as possible and have been successful in doing so without a single compromise in terms of quality of product, which says a lot for the skills we have around us in Scotland,” said Fiona.

“They are built to the highest standards of thermal insulation, are triple glazed and will be ‘passivhaus’ certified. The units can be financed and require the same planning permission as a caravan. They are designed to be transported in small sections – so there’s no need for diggers or cranes and there is no damage to existing landscapes.”

Every Kranôg unit has an open plan kitchen/lounge/dining room, a bathroom with shower, the option of up to three bedrooms, an entrance area for shoes and boots, outside decking and a beautifully crafted wood burning stove with a flat top for cooking or boiling water.

Electricity is supplied via solar panels, heat, hot water and cooking is provided by a specialist wood burning stove and water is harvested and treated from rain water.