The private plot is central to Project Argyll because it gives each member a place that is genuinely their own. It is also deliberately flexible. Joining the project should not force every member into the same timetable, the same house, or even an immediate decision to build.
Once plots have been surveyed and the developable areas agreed, members are expected to choose in the order in which they joined the project. A plot must be large enough to offer privacy and possibility, while fitting within a plan that protects access, views, woodland, water, and the wider landscape. Choice will therefore be informed by professional surveying, planning advice, and the practical limits of the estate.
A member may retain a plot without building and use the communal cabins and facilities. They may choose and purchase a model home developed with the project’s architect, or commission a design of their own. Any building will still require planning permission and must work with agreed estate standards, infrastructure, and environmental responsibilities. The objective is architectural freedom within a coherent place, not uniformity and not unchecked development.
This flexibility matters because lives change. One family may be ready to build immediately, while another wants time to understand how they will use the Highlands across the seasons. A member living overseas may begin with shorter visits. Someone approaching retirement may plan carefully for a later move. The project should make room for those different horizons.
Private rights also sit within a shared setting. Access routes, utilities, construction activity, drainage, woodland management, and neighbouring plots all create legitimate communal interests. Clear rules will be needed so that one person’s choices do not impose unreasonable costs or disruption on others. Those safeguards should be proportionate, visible, and agreed before construction begins.
The result should feel neither like a conventional housing estate nor like a temporary holiday development. It should offer the security of a defined personal place, the practical benefits of shared resources, and the freedom to decide when and how that place becomes a home. The plot is the point of independence. The surrounding estate is what gives that independence depth.