{"id":1230,"date":"2021-03-25T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2021-03-25T00:13:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T04:13:59","slug":"for-the-love-of-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/?p=1230","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Love of Scotland by Pamela Palongue<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Have you ever visited a place you\u2019ve never been to and it felt more like home than\u00a0the place you were actually living? Linda and Mike Michiels had this experience\u00a0about 20 years ago when they first visited Scotland.<\/p>\n

The couple are Belgian nationals, who found themselves returning to Scotland two or three times a year for the breathtaking landscape, the friendly natives and the\u00a0peaceful quiet of the Highlands.<\/p>\n

Soon, they began to dream of coming to Scotland to live. This was especially\u00a0remarkable, given that they owned a business in Belgium and had close family there.\u00a0They faced communication challenges as well since they were not fluent in English\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Brexit passed and Europeans realized that seismic changes were in store\u00a0for those who chose to live and work in the UK. But even the uncertainty of changing\u00a0laws did not deter their enthusiasm or their passions for their dream of living in Scotland.<\/p>\n

In 2019, they closed their business in Belgium and headed to their new home, a\u00a0small crofter cottage on the coast of Little Loch Broom near Durnamuck. They\u00a0purchased a tiny house they found at a glamping festival that had been built by a\u00a0company called Tiny Eco Homes UK. It would fit perfectly in the natural\u00a0surroundings, and could be let to people on holiday.<\/p>\n

Next, they contracted a local artisan named Graham White from Kilravock Castle to\u00a0build a custom show wagon. Linda and Mike came up with a design, and he was\u00a0able to bring their drawings to life.<\/p>\n

They based the look of it on the train wagons of the Old West, and named their new home the \u2018Western Wagon.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"With two innovative lodges for people to book, combined with the beautiful\u00a0Highlands, they were sure it would draw visitors from all over the UK and mainland\u00a0Europe. Of course, they hadn\u2019t planned on a worldwide pandemic\u2026<\/p>\n

Despite being ready to open for Easter 2020, travel restrictions and lockdowns\u00a0prevented them from accepting guests. Ever resilient, the Michiels decided to use the extra\u00a0time to build a pancake barn for visitors who might not want to cook while on holiday.<\/p>\n

It looks as though they may finally be able to accept their first guests in April 2021,\u00a0one year after their original planned opening date.<\/p>\n

Many ASF members in the United States will no doubt identify with the Michiels’ unrelenting pursuit of\u00a0the dream to live in Scotland. It can be a hard place to forget. We hope that Linda\u00a0and Mike\u2019s patience and tenacity is rewarded with much success! To see more\u00a0photos of the lovely world they\u2019ve created in the Scottish Highlands, visit their\u00a0Facebook page, Sound of Durnamuck.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Love of Scotland by Pamela Palongue Have you ever visited a place you\u2019ve never been to and it felt more like home than\u00a0the place you were actually living? Linda and Mike Michiels had this experience\u00a0about 20 years ago when they first visited Scotland. The couple are Belgian nationals, who found themselves returning to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[314,204],"tags":[514,515,516,517,518,519,520],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1275,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/1275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanscottishfoundation.com\/programs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}