Despite appearances - and despite the fact that some of the walls of the house are fully six feet thick - this is not traditionally built. Beneath the walls and floors is a state-of-the-art concrete construction system known as Beco Wallform, where the concrete is poured into shaped polystyrene moulds that double as insulation. Until the building was clad in stone, it was blindingly white and could be seen from Skye. As finished, there are around 1,000 tonnes each of stone and concrete in the house. Which - when you consider that every stone was individually selected from dozens by stonemason Dave Hill and his colleagues, that some of the stones are huge, and that there was no crane on site - gives you some idea of how much physical labour was needed to build the house. At the height of summer, with West Scotland's pestilential midges in attendance, the work was truly arduous. The timber beams inside - in oak, elm and old pine - are also massive. Mackintosh worried all the builders one day by enthusiastically helping to fix one of the enormous kitchen beams into position. Visions of a squashed internationally famous producer flashed before them, and they coaxed him to safety.

Mackintosh reckons it all cost him around £1.4m, helped by that free local stone and a dedicated workforce. "I suspect it could have cost me more money to build this same house down in England," he remarks. It's a big house, but not palatial, designed to accommodate a congenial house party of anything from three to 15. There is no huge hall - in fact the slate-floored entrance lobby is deliberately small - and no corridors. There are five bedrooms (plus a tiny sixth one up in the roof of the north wing, reached by a ladder and dubbed the "snorarium"). Four ample slate-walled bath and shower rooms. That generous but not immense circular kitchen with its dining area projecting from the front, taking in the long view. One large low-ceilinged sitting room with fireplace, and a basement utility room complete the interior picture.