Dream House | A handcrafted stone cottage overlooking Negril’s coastline

For thousands of years, the application of natural stone in the construction of buildings has been valued for its physical attractiveness, strength, and resilience. Master stonemasons have artistically cut and carefully shaped to create this eye-appealing, timeless cottage, built from material that will outlive most others. In this modern age, as in ancient times, stone continues to play its incalculable role in sculpturing the world’s man-made environment.

The exquisitely handcrafted, thatched-roofed cottage, completed by a Canadian lady in 2011, after two years of construction, resides atop the cliffs of Negril, on the West End road, with the persistent breeze in its face and the unbounded Caribbean Sea within its eyesight. Its beige-coloured interior impacts you with enticing, multi-sided, multi-windowed spaces, entailing the ultimate sleep arrangement, allowing unparalleled, advanced pressure relief, cooling comfort, and motion absorption ... adapting to your weight and shape.

The bathroom exposes a granite, twin-basin vanity with double-wall mirrors. A mini-bar serves up refreshments, and a private, attention-grabbing patio stares out at a sight to behold. The approximately five acres of ecological gardens are neatly punctuated by winding stone pathways that lead down to the very rare sandy beach on this section of the island. The property’s curvaceous, sea-fed, coastal stone swimming pool and sundeck bring to the fore a stone-columned, timber trellised-roofed lounge area. This is as good as it gets!

For architecture that romances you with its stone and geographic location, we unreservedly admit it to the Dream House series.

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com