We created this house as a haven of peace, which we have had such fun reforming into something which everyone thinks is so special
Instantly we knew we had found what we were looking for when we discovered an existing Spanish cortijo on seven acres of land near Ronda. There was considerable work to be done both structurally, and in terms of landscaping, but the potential could clearly be seen.
We wanted to use the house occasionally for ourselves and the children but also to rent it out to holidaymakers seeking a spacious beautiful home in the countryside that offered a host of possibilities which would not run out, however long their stay. We also wanted to be near enough an urban centre so that it wouldn’t be necessary to go on a boringly long drive to access basic amenities, or difficult to call upon a caretaker, gardener, or other help for the house.
We decided to entrust a local resident and friend to maintain the property in perfect shape year-round. We also found another trustworthy local ally to manage the construction. We inherited the builder from Mel Brecknell who had sold the house to us: a lovely Andalucian with a winning ear to ear smile, for whom nothing was too much trouble. In fact, it was easier to manage this job in Ronda from the UK than almost any other building job we have undertaken there!
Dating back about 100 years, the original house was a simple two-floor structure, but the restoration transformed it into a serious house offering endless possibilities. A wide colonnade was added to the rear of the house, perfect for outdoor dining, while a courtyard was added to the front of the house. Beyond providing much needed shade, these structures look, by design, as if they have always been part of the house forever.
New windows and beams were installed throughout, also looking as if they had always been there. Modern elements were put in such as under-floor heating. We wanted all bells and whistles. The largest room downstairs is the living and dining space, occupying the entire width of the house and boasting windows in three directions.
Adjacent to the dining area is the large kitchen, whose generous work surface overlooks the garden. A guest area occupies about a third of the area of the ground floor, and comprises two double bedrooms – one very large. Upstairs, there are five bedrooms, each with a different view of the countryside and an en-suite bathroom (one of which is shared by two bedrooms).
In terms of decor, space, the predominance of white, and a subtle decorative style that is neither particularly modern nor classic are the distinguishing factors. This is a stately country style that is not excessively formal, resulting in a sophisticated yet soothingly simple living atmosphere. To enhance the abundance of light and space, the exposed wooden beams were also painted white.
Moderately darker textiles, the earth tones of the large floor tiles, wooden furniture with soft lines, books on the many built-in shelves, and the occasional soft yellow or blue all provide a just measure of contrast to this general clarity. The emphasis is not on particularly ornate corners or flashy centrepieces.
The form and extent of the natural space have been respected, and features are simultaneously handsome and functional. For example there is a walk-in shower in the pool garden, whose circular structure, lattice woodwork, and pastel blue plaster recall the traditional hammam and the form of a sea shell.
There was once a market garden here, and the creation of such a welcoming outdoor space must have been made possible by the combination of Andalucia’s exceptional weather and English gardening savoir-faire. Folklore has it that the house was once known as “El Rubio” – literally translated in Spanish to “The Blonde”, but what trysts she might have got up to are perhaps beyond the scope of this note.
“This is the best place we have ever stayed – including Australia, England, France, Argentina, Morocco, Germany and the U.S.A”.
A large enclosed pool garden was created in a newly walled garden. Being some distance from the coast, we wanted to create a space where people could spend all day without an urgent need to drive to the beach. The dining area at the pool features a bar, cobblestones, tiles, and a thatched roof much like that of a Maldivian hut. Lavender beds, hammocks, and the lawn around the pool add to the general comfort of the open area.
The house overlooks the gorgeous valley of the Grazalema National Park, El Noque is therefore the perfect place to keep horses and from which to go on memorable rides, or equally relaxing and varied walking excursions.
The deepest section of the Guadiaro River valley, which gently slopes down from Ronda to Sotogrande, is called Valle del Libar. Far from any major road and famous for its beauty, this is the route of the railroad track from Algeciras to Madrid. Valle del Libar is famed for its natural and cultural riches: breathtakingly deep gorges, quaint villages with gastronomic specialities, an enormous cave system well-known to spelunkers nationwide, and the exotic fauna and flora of southern Andalucia– cork oaks, bougainvillea, mongoose, chameleons…
“We loved your villa….we rent a similar sized one each year, but El Noque was by far the best furnished and provisioned …by far….it felt like being at home (except for the blue skies and warmth)”.
We wanted a rural spot but not one completely off the beaten track. The location is not so isolated that town-oriented attractions are to be written off. By car, you are only five minutes away from the beloved town of Ronda, where Romans, Moors, and Christians successively left intriguing signs of their civilisations.
At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Goya frequently painted the essence of Ronda life, depicting the dramatic old quarter, perched high up over both sides of the Guadalevín River and Tajo gorge, or glamorous fights in the bullring, as the town, unbeknownst to many, is the birthplace of this tradition.
El Noque is also less than one hour’s drive from either Malaga or the Costa del Sol. Malaga is Spain’s third city and as such features an international airport, an important university, and many cultural attractions including the recently inaugurated Picasso Museum and the Cervantes Theatre, where world-class events are held throughout the year.
As for the Costa del Sol, this stretch of coast includes the resorts of Marbella, Puerto Banús, and Sotogrande, as well as other noteworthy towns. The area is considered the best destination for golf and seaside luxury living in Spain, but the lesser-known hilly interior is full of secret and not-so-secret treasures.
So it is no surprise that El Noque has seen such success as a rental house, being let no less than 30 weeks in the last two years. Testimony to this is the eloquent praise left on the website under “What People Say”.
What we have here then is a rural property in the heart of Andalucia bringing together local flavour with the tradition of English country living. In addition to the style of the home itself, a clear advantage is a location that offers the best of three worlds: the quiet and beauty of the countryside, historic Ronda nearby with all its facilities, and larger seaside resorts and urban centres quickly accessible by car.
This is what Ed and Katha Wood had to say themselves:
“We created this house as a haven of peace, which we have had such fun reforming into something which everyone thinks is so special.”
Katha and I think that bedrooms and comfortable beds are very important. Rooms with space to move around, beds with space to move around in too, and soft enough to get a really good night’s sleep in, with pillows to match, and really soft sheets – not horribly scratchy ones.
We like bathrooms to be large, and we like marble surrounds and big showers and big baths with lovely taps and huge towels to match. So we created those.
The house is wonderfully cool in summer and wonderfully warm in the winter. Two fireplaces burn our own logs in the winter and very cosy they are too. In addition we have underfloor heating throughout the entire house, and it works properly. Large sofas, draped in ponchos, are very cosy to sit and read in. And we have a large library of books to choose from.
We imported a lovely handmade kitchen from England, complete with hidden fridges, a Smeg 6 ring gas cooker, various sinks and two dishwashers, and then we fitted it out with every conceivable piece of equipment. The guests love that. So easy to cook in, or to be cooked for in. And then, next door, a utility room with more fridges and freezers, a huge American washing machine and a dryer, more sinks and drying rails.
We built the courtyard, encompassing trees which were already there on that side of the house, floored it in wonderful reclaimed tiles from a bodega near Sevilla, put openings in the walls to capture the lovely local views, and a pair of huge gates leading to the drive outside. It looks like it has been there forever, togther with its two fountains – because the sound of water is so calming.
Oh, and then we built the pool garden – one guest said that it reminded them of a bull ring, another that it was really a leisure complex! One thing is sure – it is very much a destination. So many days we have gone up there after breakfast and returned for dinner – unless we stayed up for a barbeque in the evening.
We built a dining room in the pool garden as well – with white walls and a thatched roof – it’s an open dining room with a huge table that sits twelve, and a bar with a marble top that divides it from the fully equipped kitchen – two more fridges there and a hob and oven – and all that you need to cater for everyone’s needs all day long. So much time spent on a bar stool there, straight out of the swimming pool and gazing at the views! These two buildings were based on an idea we got on holiday in the Maldives.
The pool has a lovely ochrey rough marble surround which goes well with the tiles in the rest of the pool garden – also rescued from the Bodega near Seville which was a great find.
Shade is important as it does get very hot at times, so we went to town on the pergolas and built several of those, so along with the mature trees, and the colonnade and the dining room at the pool, there is masses of shade for everyone.
And then, of course we needed lots of sun loungers, and comfortable tables and chairs, all with soft cushions, for lying out, or sitting out, and then we hit on the idea of having lots of places where we could hang hammocks – so we put in five pairs of rough white posts around the property (with two pairs in the pool garden) so everyone could grab a book and head for a very comfortable place to read it – so comfortable in fact that the book easily falls out of the hand!
People very kindly tell us that the house looks just as it might have done 100 years ago (but of course for modern conveniences!) and this is nice to hear, because, in truth, a lot has happened to it since we bought it in 2005. We feel sure they mean that it remains very simple and very white and very uncluttered, with its terracotta floors and plain white walls without a picture hanging anywhere – just large windows framing glorious views.
There are a lot of other little details that people tell us they notice – like the wrought iron gates to the courtyard and the pool garden, or the wrought iron window frames that give glimpses of the lovely views. Or perhaps the wicker blinds at the pool, or the light white curtains that divide the colonnades into different seating spaces and billow in the breeze. Or the white or ochre garden walls topped with pantiles. Or perhaps even the outdoor lighting – hidden behind the trees and shrubs, on in the lavender on the paths, or behind pantiles on the outside walls. Maybe the thought was of a stroll around the boundary of the property inside its post and rails fencing divided up with lovely hand made gates.
The gardens were a labour of love. To be fair we found the house with a lot of mature trees – mainly walnuts and poplars, and a couple of palms and some bamboo, with a few large pear and other fruit trees. But the rest we put in. La Huerta (Spanish for Market Garden) was once exactly that, and it is a very fertile place. So to add to the peace we planted the paths and borders with Santolina and Lavender, the orchard areas and courtyard with apple, pear, cherry, lemon, plum, kiwi, peach, apricot, almond and orange trees – to add to the quince, mulberry, fig and pomegranate and nispero (quite delicious) trees which were already there! The fruit in the summer is out of this world when warm and eaten straight off the tree.
“The house is just too nice… not like normal rental houses! Sometimes one hopes a holiday should be endless – a La Huerta holiday is one of them – it is like Cinderella’s castle.”
To round it off we added scented plants and creepers – verbena, jasmine, passion flower and honeysuckle (to name but a few), shrubbery in the form of oleander, bougainvillea, azalea, buddleia, myrtle and many others. And then we added an olive grove, and some catalpa and the lovely false pepper trees and a strawberry tree! Rosemary, Sage, basil and thyme went into the herb garden. Finally areas of watered lawn were balanced against the wilder areas which produce lovely wildflowers and are home to many birds and butterflies.
The views are gorgeous – facing South and West. And it is wonderful to sit in the early evening sun, looking over the main drive, at the mountains in the distance over such a very stunning valley.
Not just for the grown ups, but also the kids – they get some hidden paths to play in, a special area of lawn for ballgames – badminton thrown in – and also a full sized ping pong table. Plus, a huge sandpit for the smaller ones, who also get a buggy high chair and cot for their personal use!
A commercial lawyer, working for a city firm in London, rang us up one day, having visited our website – and he said to us:
“I visited your website, and I looked at the pictures, and listened to that music you’ve got on there, and I was REALLY MOVED”.
We wanted music that set the mood of what El Noque means to people who know it, and we wanted a wonderful Hawaiian – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – to be that music. In the middle of the night, in the early nineties, Iz Kamakawiwo’ole, a vast man the size of three, shuffled through the door of a Honolulu recording studio, carrying a ukulele that looked like a toy. He begged the sound engineer to work with him. Cajoled him into saying yes…..and twenty minutes later, the massive musician went home, unaware that the medley he had just recorded “over the rainbow/what a wonderful world” would stand as a milestone in the history of Hawaiian music. Sweet, heartfelt and haunting, somehow he evoked peace in a world of turmoil.
Iz was buried in Hawaii on 10th July 1997, after his body lay in state in the Capitol Building in Honolulu – he was only the third person in Hawaiian history to be accorded this honour.
When we heard about Iz, we realised his music was perfect to say what it is that El Noque does for people. Just listen to it on our video...Enjoy!