The Hill House is the domestic masterpiece of the great Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Not particularly successful or lucky, he was an undoubted genius, a product of the flowering of art in Glasgow at the end of the nineteenth century. His influence is still discernible in many buildings and artefacts today. In 1902 he was commissioned by Walter Blackie, the publisher, to design this house for him and everything in it, a bold decision indeed.

The house (and the British public) has since been very lucky. With much of its original contents, it is now cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. In 1978 we came to the aid of the previous owner, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. Bravely departing from its usual role as a professional body, it had in 1972 raised the money to buy the house when no other preservation body would take it on, but had scarce means to maintain it. As well as helping the RIAS directly, we took a lease of the top floor, which had been turned into a flat, and here we remain as tenants.

The principal room of our flat was the schoolroom of the Blackie family. Like all rooms once the domain of children, it has the feeling of a place where much spirit and energy have been expended. It is large and irregularly shaped, under the roof, with bookcases (now filled by us with Blackie’s Annuals) and toy cupboards designed by Mackintosh – and with a large three-sided bay window, flooded with daylight, looking over the Firth of Clyde and beyond.

For those who admire Mackintosh or who wish to find out why others do so, to stay here is a privilege and experience without compare. The NTS usually opens the house between Easter and October.

Helensburgh, on the upper edge of which The Hill House stands, is a pleasant, interesting place. An early and far-sighted example of town-planning, it was laid out on very generous lines in 1775. Big houses in big gardens line its broad tree-planted roads. And over the top of the hill the road leads down to Loch Lomond.

The Mackintosh Building was also designed by Mackintosh.

Sleeps: 6