‘It is geared around creating a community’

John Frid, 60, and Susan White, 59, live in Tornagrain, Scottish Highlands

John and Susan are Londoners who relocated to Scotland in 2012. Deciding to move away from high pressure jobs (she was a senior manager in the health service; he worked for London Underground), they bought a large Victorian house in the centre of Inverness in the Highlands and established a guest house.

It was six years later that the couple became aware of a new development that was breaking ground on land just seven miles north-east of Inverness. “One of our neighbours had been to take a look and reported that they were building traditional-looking houses with slate roofs in a beautiful setting,” says John. “We had to take a look,” adds Susan, who is executive director of Befrienders Highland, a not-for-profit organisation that helps adults in the area who are lonely and isolated.

Last April, having sold up in the centre of town, the couple picked up the keys to their new three-bedroom home in Tornagrain. They had to be patient – houses were being snapped up on the new development as soon as they were released to the market. But fast-forward 18 months and they are now knitted into the new community: John is a member of the residents’ association and Susan runs Blew & Blether, a weekly coffee morning (“blether” loosely means chat in Scots).

“We love living here,” they chorus. “It feels like a village now but will become a town – although not in our lifetime. The place is geared around creating a community, and it’s designed so you can walk around without worrying about cars, which means you automatically chat to neighbours.”