Strange Things We’ve Found in Our 180-Year-Old Cottage Living in Scotland

There are some things you expect when you move into a 180-year-old cottage.

Thick stone walls. Uneven floors. Things that need fixing. A garden that seems to have its own ideas.

What I didn’t expect was a naked man beside the pond, a golf club built into a wall and a tube of Voltarol sealed behind glass like a museum exhibit.

And that is before we’ve even started any of the big renovations.

We live in a tiny rural village in Scotland in a cottage that has been here for around 180 years, with nearly an acre of land around it.

A lot of people have lived here before us, and the longer we’re here, the more little pieces of their lives we notice.

Some make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

These are ten of my favourites so far — plus one bonus!

1. Our Roof Slates Apparently Have Their Own Story

For months after we moved in, we noticed people walking past the house and looking at it.

Not just a quick glance either.

Proper looking.

We thought nothing of it really. It's an old stone cottage and it is a lovely house, so we assumed people were just being nosy.

Which, to be fair, I would be too.

Then one day we went into a local shop and found a display about a particular type of slate used on buildings around here.

And sitting on an actual podium as part of the display was...

our house.

I kid you not.

It was really cool to discover, but it also explained a LOT.

They knew something we didn't.

2. Beatrix Potter Is Hiding in the Front Garden

We have old stepping stones running through part of the front garden, and built into them are Beatrix Potter characters.

I walked over them so many times before I properly stopped and looked.

They're really lovely and they seem to have been here for quite a while.

That's the kind of thing I don't ever want to rip out just because we're eventually changing parts of the garden.

Somebody chose those.

They were part of someone else's version of this house long before we arrived.

So the Beatrix Potter stones are staying.

3. Who Was Michael?

There is a name carved into one of the stones outside.

I think it says Michael.

And somebody didn't just quickly scratch it in either. They put some effort into it.

So naturally I have questions.

Who was Michael?

Did he live here?

Was he a child?

Was he visiting?

We'll probably never know.

But however many years ago it happened, there was a real person standing on the same bit of ground I'm standing on now, deciding to put his name into the stone.

And it worked.

Because now I know Michael existed.

4. Tweedledee and Tweedledum Live Here Too

We also inherited Alice in Wonderland figures in the garden.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

If you know me, you'll know this was a very good discovery because I absolutely love Alice in Wonderland.

Apparently one of the previous owners had a bit of a whimsical streak too, so I feel like we probably would have got on.

There are quite a few places around the garden where you stop and wonder why something is there.

And I don't mean that negatively.

I actually love that the garden isn't one designed thing.

Different people have added different things over decades and it's all still layered together.

Now we're adding ours.

5. The Garage Has a Date in the Stone

One of the interesting things about having such an old property is trying to work out which bits were actually here originally.

The cottage itself is around 180 years old.

The garage isn't.

Other things have been added, knocked down, changed and rebuilt over the years.

Luckily, whoever built the garage gave us a clue because there is a date carved straight into the stone.

I love finding things like this because it gives you one tiny piece of the timeline.

We've got dates in one place.

Names somewhere else.

I have a feeling you could live here for twenty years and still be piecing the history together.

6. A Dog Is Permanently Part of the Garage

Right outside the garage is possibly one of my favourite things on the whole property.

A dog's paw print.

At some point, the concrete was wet and somebody's dog walked over it.

But whoever owned the house didn't smooth it back over afterwards.

They left it.

And I'm so glad they did.

I love dogs, so it's great. Now I'm here with my beautiful dog Bo, and my gorgeous girl Lily who has passed, but loved it here.

7. There's a Dog Chasing Birds Across My Kitchen

Apparently this cottage has always been a dog house because the kitchen has a huge hand-painted mural of a dog chasing birds.

Someone actually painted it as part of the kitchen.

And it is definitely not subtle.

Eventually we will renovate the kitchen, and I genuinely don't know what we're going to do with this because I really don't want it to disappear.

So when we finally get around to doing the kitchen, I'm going to have to find some way of keeping it.

Suggestions are very welcome because I haven't worked that part out yet.

8. Meet Nobby

I should probably introduce Nobby.

Nobby is a naked male statue standing beside our pond.

I named him.

Obviously.

He came with the house and he has been there ever since.

The slightly more interesting part is that a well-known potter was once connected with this property, which has made us wonder whether Nobby might possibly have been made by him.

We have absolutely no proof of this.

None.

Nobby could have been bought from a garden centre.

But because we know pottery was made here, it isn't completely impossible.

And until somebody proves otherwise, I'm quite happy leaving the mystery alone.

He's been standing naked beside that pond for however many years.

He can continue.

9. We Still Have What We Think Was the Potter's Stand

This is one of the pieces I find genuinely fascinating.

We still have what we believe was used by the potter who worked here.

It was someone's working equipment.

A real person stood here creating things, probably over and over again, and the equipment is still sitting on the property years later.

I'd love to eventually find out more about the pottery made here.

There could quite easily be pieces sitting in people's houses right now that were originally created at this cottage.

That feels very strange when you think about it.

10. Someone Put Voltarol in the Wall

And now we reach the one I desperately need an explanation for.

There is a tube of Voltarol sealed into one of our stone walls behind glass or plastic.

Not accidentally trapped inside it.

Displayed.

Somebody deliberately wanted this tube visible.

WHY?

My current theory is that it was some sort of inside joke.

Maybe somebody built the wall, ended up with a terrible back afterwards and the Voltarol became part of the story.

That would at least make some sense.

So we're just left with a pain-relief gel shrine built into our cottage.

If you are somehow reading this and you know why it's there, please contact me.

I need closure.

Bonus: There Is a Golf Club in the Wall

I said ten.

We're doing eleven.

One of our stone walls has an actual golf club incorporated into it.

Again, nobody left instructions.

I assume it was being used as a hook at some point.

Maybe something hung from it.

Maybe someone had a broken golf club lying around and decided that was cheaper than buying a proper piece of metal.

I have no idea.

But that is quite typical of this house.

You'll be walking around thinking everything looks normal and then suddenly notice part of a golf club sticking out of a stone wall.

After a while, you stop asking too many questions.

I Don't Think We'll Ever Know Everything About This House

And I actually quite like that.

When we first moved here, I think I imagined we'd eventually work everything out.

We'd renovate the rooms.

Sort the garden.

Discover what everything was.

Finish the jobs.

And then the house would somehow be "done."

I don't think that's going to happen.

We haven't even started the major renovations yet, and I'm terrified by what could be hiding behind walls and underneath floors when we eventually do.

But that's also part of what I love about living somewhere this old.

This cottage had a life before us.

Lots of lives, actually.

People worked here.

They had dogs.

They made pottery.

They planted things.

And now it's our turn.

I don't really think of it as a house that we're going to strip back and make completely new anymore.

We're just the people looking after it for this part of its life — and ours.

We'll change things, obviously.

We'll leave bits of ourselves here too.

And maybe one day somebody else will stand in the garden looking at something we've done and say:

What on earth were they thinking?

Fair enough.

Want to See All of These Properly?

I've filmed a full video showing these little discoveries around our 180-year-old cottage and telling you much more about each one.

So if you want to actually see Michael, Nobby, the mysterious Voltarol tube, the paw print, the Alice in Wonderland figures and that completely inexplicable golf club, you can watch the video below.

And considering we haven't even started opening this house up yet, I have a feeling this won't be the last post like this.

There are definitely more mysteries here.

10 Strange Things We’ve Found in Our 180-Year-Old Cottage Living in Scotland