Category: Reviews

Rosa Scotia – click any image for full size

A recent arrival in the Destination Guide is Rosa Scotia, a Homestead region designed by Pokute Burt, who describes the region thus:

Here you will find a small island filled with wonderful décor, and a great place to hangout! Lots of event treasures arranged in a very artistic way. Relaxing, good for photography, or just hanging out in a place that is peaceful.

And, I have to admit, in making our visit, this is a region that is exactly as it is described, and quiet wonderfully so.

Rosa Scotia

The island really is quite small, a rugged postage stamp in the middle of the region, flanked to the north-east and north-west by two small islets, one of which is home to a lighthouse, the other a small, flat-topped  islet featuring what appears to be an empty, ivy-covered structure.

Small it might be, but the region packs a lot into it. The landing point sits on the west side of the island on a small wharf. Above this sits a little commercial area set out around a cobbled square. The square is in turn bracketed on one side by a truly delightful café, and on the other a bar is sandwiched between a barber’s and a pizzeria. These appear to occupy the ground floor of an old hotel – the sign is still prominently displayed – while stairs lead up to furnished apartments and a small  music club.

Rosa Scotia

A path cuts through the middle of the island, west-to-east, providing access to a beach on the east side. Slightly tired-looking, this offers an old volleyball net, an aged pier with rickety bar at the end of it, and that might have once been a lifeguard station or fisherman’s cabin.

Between the two, sitting either side of the path are two buildings: a Tuscan-style villa and a single-room cabin with grapes growing on the vine outside. Whether the two are related to one another or not is open to personal interpretation; however, both are fully furnished and offer excellent places for meeting and hanging out or for photography – something that can also be said of the other buildings on the island.

Rosa Scotia

With their surrounding curtain of trees isolating them from the rest of the island, the two houses have a nice clubhouse feel to them, with the woodlands offering a place for wildlife to roam. These touches help give the feeling that the island is, despite its small size, not in any way crowded.

A final feature of the island lies on the south-east, with a bridge spans the water to provide access to a tiny block of rock on which the raised hand of the Statue of Liberty, complete with torch, sits within a little walled garden.

Rosa Scotia

Small to the point of cosiness without feeling claustrophobic and with a westward view towards Loki Eliot’s Escapades island – a place that is itself well worth a visit – Rosa Scotia is a small, pleasing destination ripe for visiting and exploration.

SLurl Details

• Rosa Scotia (Rosa Scotia, rated: Moderate)

Hors du Temps – click any image for full size

Update: Hors du Temps has closed and the host region under private ownership. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

Hors du Temps (“Out of Time”) is the latest region design by Rose Ulrik (Rose Siabonne), who has previously designed La Clef des Champs (see here and here), and like that design, it makes for an absorbing visit with a lot awaiting discovery.

The region is divided into a group of islands: a large primary island with a mix of low-lying land and rugged tables of rock.  Containing the (unenforced) landing point on its west side, it is surrounded by three smaller islands, one of which has two private residences atop it, and another that may potentially be up for renting.

Hors du Temps

The landing point sits on the sands of the low-lying part of the main island, sharing the location with a sheltered open market complete with a game of boules, while a little shack and an old children’s playground sit close by. Beyond the market, the land rises to a grassy plateau, a path winding up its side. A large wooden house sits on the plateau, inviting exploration – but do take note there are a couple of rental posts sitting behind it, so it might be available for rent as a private residence, so caution should perhaps be exercised when approaching it.

To the south, the land also becomes more rugged with fingers and tables of granite-like rock rising above the sands. Paths offer a way through and up this part of the island, giving multiple opportunities for exploration and photography – and there is a lot to see. Away to the north-east is a headland looking towards the island with private homes. It also offers a house: Marcthur Goosson’s always attractive Ma Maison cottage, a build I’ve often been tempted by whenever I’ve seen it. This blends nicely into the surrounding rocks, and sits above a small beach. Whether this might also be available for rent is hard to say, but with the outdoor bric-a-brac in the courtyard, it makes an ideal subject for photography.

Hors du Temps

When making your way to the cottage, keep your eyes open for the paths awaiting your feet. One climbs the south-west plateau to where an artist’s studio sits tucked away, a further beach sitting below it. This is reached by a separate path, one that runs past a stone bridge providing access to the second of the outlying islands. With its glass conservatories, winding paths and climbs, and places to sit and spend time, this is perhaps my favourite part of the region – although we had to admit defeat in trying to find a way down to the beach, short of jumping off the arch of rock above it!

The final island – excluding the small islet topped by a lighthouse that lies off the west coast – sits to the south-west and is reached via a wooden footbridge crossing the shallows between it and the main island. Once again, it is a rocky uprising with a small beach. It is also home to another house that may or may not be available for rent – so again, do take care whilst exploring.

Hors du Temps

This is also a place with one or two little surprises. Alongside the landing point, for example, sits a teleport disk. Touching this will present you with two destinations: BDSM and Fairy Garden. The former is pretty much as the name implies – a place for BDSM activities presented as a tasteful, low-key club occupying a penthouse-like setting overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

The second destination – Fairy Garden – is a skybound garden that, while smaller in size, offers a similar charm to Lauren Bentham’s Storybrooke Gardens (itself the subject of three past articles in the blog dating from 2014, 2015 and 2017). It’s another place to escape to and which cannot fail to bring a smile to a visitor’s face with its whimsy.

Hors du Temps

Nor is the disk the only teleport point. Tucked away in the region is a Stargate and DHD from Stargate SG-1 and its offshoots. However, I’ll leave this to you to find when visiting – it shouldn’t be too hard!

Like Clef des Champs before it, Hors du Temps makes for an enticing visit. With rowing boats moored just off-shore, numerous places to sit both on the beach and inland, a rich sound scape and lots of detail with plants, statues and wildlife (and cats!) scattered throughout, there is more than enough to keep those dropping in engaged in their explorations.

Hors du Temps

Our thanks – once again – to Shawn Shakespeare for the tip-off.

Killary

Update: Killary has closed, and the host region offered for rent to private tenants. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

Back in April, Miro Collas pointed us in the direction of Killary, a homestead region design by Morena Tully,  and which is inspired by the “only fjord in Ireland”, Killary inlet (or harbour), on the Connemara coast of Galway, Ireland.

Those who know Connemara know it to be a place of rugged beauty with many places to captivate the eye and the heart. Lying to the northern end of Connemara, Killary sits on the border between the counties of Galway and Mayo, and is an incredibly striking location, a deep, glacial valley that now forms an inlet served by the likes of the Erriff, Bundorragha and Bunanakee rivers.

Killary

For her design, Morena encapsulates Killary’s winding mix of hills and water-filled inlet in a rugged design that is striking in its simplicity and desolated nature. In doing so, she perfectly captures the way in which the region’s inspiration faces off against the wild and capricious Atlantic, which can be prone to throwing wind, rain and storm at Ireland as she looks westward, giving parts of her coastline a hardened look; a large of tough grass and shrubs where trees have to brace themselves against incoming storms.

The look of the region is such that its naked bleakness perfectly frames Morena’s aim for the region, which she describes as:

Simple, minimalist, easy. Clear thoughts seem to happen with just land, water, and sky. Sometimes it’s OK for a place to be just a place.

Killary

This is a place that really needs no description. Rather it is a place to be experienced – a place to come to when quiet solitude is what you require. While the design might be minimalist, with its scattered trees and sheep, and the stone buildings and ruins that give the region a sense of age, there are places scattered throughout the landscape that encourage visitors to sit and stay awhile, whether they are in the company of friends or simply spending time with their thoughts.

Which direction you take from the landing point is entirely up to you; as it is positions on the northern (“inland”) end of the inlet cutting into the region, going east or west will take you along either of the two arms of the U-like landscape. Either route has points of interest, be it the high hill crowned by the circle of a broken wall, or east to where the ruins of a small church sit and a lean-two offers shelter for the island’s sheep.

Killary

However, you will want tread both routes, simply because they invite exploration. Also, when you do so, you might discover the wooden treasure chests scattered across the land. Each of these is guarded by a simple riddle. Left click to read the riddle and supply your answer. If your answer is correct, each chest will open and offer you a gift. If your answer is incorrect – you can try again 🙂 .

Morena notes this may be her last region design. While I don’t remember visiting any of her past designs, Killary demonstrates I’ve probably been missing out; so I hope I’ll have to opportunity to see more of her work in the future.

Killary