Broughty Ferry house featured on Scotland's Home of the Year

The Courier

08-05-2025

Episode four of Scotland's Home of the Year focuses on Tayside and Stirlingshire.
The first house featured is in Broughty Ferry. The Tree House is a 1960s modernist home that has been lovingly updated by its new owners.
It was built by architect Bruce Walker, who lectured at Duncan of Jordanstone and worked for Historic Scotland. Walker built Tree House in 1962 when he was in his 20s and lived there until his death in around 2015. The Tree House sits in a quiet corner of Broughty Ferry. Image: BBC.
It lay empty for more than five years until Paul Durrant and his wife Jackie McKenzie bought it in 2021. They previously lived nearby, on Victoria Road, and wanted to downsize but remain in the area.
'We walked past the house and saw it was for sale,' Jackie explains. 'Paul fell in love with it instantly and I wasn't far behind him. A young architect built it for his family when he was in his 20s and lived there right through until his 80s. There's a lot of trees around the house and that's why we called it the Tree House.' Renovating the Tree House
The couple spent 18 months dramatically overhauling the Tree House. Remarkably, apart from a one-week stay in an Airbnb, they lived in the home throughout the renovation project.
'We didn't want to live in a 1960s museum piece,' Jackie continues, explaining the ethos behind the project. 'But we wanted to retain the features that made it special.' The home's large windows and original beech flooring have been retained. Image: BBC.
The exposed brick walls are still a feature of the home, as is the 40mm thick beech flooring, which was sanded and recoated. The natural pine doors have been kept and while they've plasterboarded over the pine ceilings they have been retained so future generations can open them back up should they wish to.
They painted the external brickwork black and clad the outside walls in radiata pine. Interior brickwork was painted white to make a neutral backdrop for the couple's art collection.
Edinburgh based Block 9 did the architectural work and local trades were used, including Ardach Joinery and West Developments for the main building work, and painter and decorator Andrew Stott. Developing the attic
The Tree House originally had a flat roof but it failed and was replaced in 1980 with a metal clad pitched roof that increased the height of the building.
It was accessed by a Ramsay latter and Bruce Walker used this space as an office and storage for his architectural work. Jackie and Paul installed an oak staircase and made the upper level into their own private space. Th attic contains a stunning master bedroom. Image: BBC.
'One of the many things I love about the house is the ground floor is open plan and fantastic for socialising,' Jackie continues. 'But upstairs is just for us. We have a snug, our bedroom, a dressing room, and an en suite. The bedroom has an enormous window looking over the garden.' The attic has a private snug area. Image: BBC.
Bruce Walker was influenced by Scotland's agricultural buildings which is why the Tree House is clad in corrugated metal. There are no gutters and instead the overhangs stretch out so water is deposited well away from the house and is soaked up by the garden.
'Sitting on the sofa in winter with the wood burner on when it's raining heavily is like looking out through a waterfall,' Jackie says. 'I just love it.' Exploring inside
The ground floor has a kitchen/diner, a lounge, three bedrooms and a bathroom. Upstairs there's a snug, bedroom, shower room, and dressing room.
The L-shaped living room and kitchen are semi-open plan, with a brick column creating a divider. Meanwhile the bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and an enormous window giving views over the garden. The living spaces are semi-open plan. Image: BBC.
The living room windows look out over a lovely Japanese courtyard, with a beautiful acer tree as its centrepiece.
Paul says: 'You've got a little bit of LA, it's like a house from Hollywood Hills. You've also got a house that's a little bit Scandi noir. You've got a Japanese courtyard, and upstairs we've got our own big room which really is up in the trees.' Scotland's Home of the Year
The Scotland's Home of the Year judges loved the Tree House's sense of peace and tranquillity
Anna Campbell-Jones says: 'One of the things that is really successful about this home is the arrangement of the spaces and their interrelationship with each other. It's an absolute masterstroke.' It's not called the Tree House for nothing. Image: BBC.
Danny Campbell is also full of praise for the Tree House: 'I've absolutely fallen in love with this home. It's positioned on its site perfectly to take advantage of the southeast light in the courtyard. The clean lines and deep reveals of the ground floor completely contrast with the carefree abandon of the angles, exposed structure and chaos of the window placements upstairs.'
There is a particularly touching reason why Jackie, 60, and Paul, 70, decided to put themselves forward for Scotland's Home of the Year. 'We did it to pay tribute to Bruce Walker, the architect who created the house,' Jackie says. 'We never met him but he was known in the neighbourhood. He designed this amazing house when he was just in his 20s.
'Throughout the project we always considered what he might think about what we were doing with the house he built. I hope we've done him proud.'
The Tree House in Broughty Ferry features in Episode Four of Scotland's Home of the Year which is on BBC One Scotland on Monday May 12 at 8.30pm and then on iPlayer.