Jim McCulloch

I am co-owner of a holiday let business in the Brecon Beacons, consisting of three holiday cottages that I have designed and converted with my partner. 

We opened the business in 2017 and have been expanding ever since! I am also a qualified architect, and practice on a small scale as a side business to the holiday lets.   Lastly, I also work at two music festivals in different capacities, Green Man in the Brecon Beacons and Glastonbury.

I had worked in architectural practice in London for about 20 years.   As I progressed, I couldn’t help but notice that the job became increasingly about managing people and budgets, which I did enjoy, but it became less about project work and design. 

I was faced with a choice – to stay in architecture and potentially have to face giving up the project work I most enjoyed, or perhaps take a chance and take a different path while still creating. What was a retirement dream soon became a ‘Why not now?’, and the Brecon Beacons was the perfect place to build the dream, after selling up in London.

I had always wanted to be an architect from an early age, and inspiration came from so many different sources – from visiting buildings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh on childhood holidays to Scotland, to spending Sundays looking round the show-homes on the new-build estates with my Mum. 

I was always drawing and making things, so studying architecture was ideal. I have been lucky to work with some pretty amazing an inspirational architects, and hope that maybe some of that I have passed on to young architects I’ve mentored.

I left university in the 1990’s recession.  Full-time work was hard to get, so I had experience of self-employment very early taking work wherever I could. It was hard to amass the work experience - traditionally in one place - examiners expected to see for professional qualification, and I didn’t pass the exam until much later. Another recession in 2008 saw our company go from 25 to 7 overnight, although I was still there it was a difficult time. 

Since making the move to Wales, COVID came just as we were about to start conversion work. Luckily our builder was happy to continue and we were able to re-open after lockdown. The frustrating thing about working for someone else was that they always called the shots. 

Now life is very simple, we offer a lovely place to stay or an architectural service, and guests or clients come to us. We are in control. Although you could say holiday guests and architecture clients still call the shots!