Xinara House stands at the centre of Xinara, a village of old stone houses, two churches and one car-free street, under the bare slopes of Exomvourgo mountain. The buildings date from the 18th century; bishop’s residence from the 1820s, the house carries the coat of arms of the Cyclades bishop of the day, Ioannes Kollaros. What makes it worth the climb up from the port is the way it came back: the island’s own quarries and marble workers did the work, which places the restoration inside a trade Tinos has kept alive.
The restoration is the work of Peter and Susan Marston, from 2016. The couple were living in London and came upon Tinos while waiting out a delayed flight at Mykonos. Nobody had mentioned the quiet island next door, so they crossed, looked at ruined houses, and found this one neglected under the mountain, empty for decades and held between 17 shared owners. They worked with local craftsmen and kept as much of the traditional fabric as the buildings would allow. It opened to visitors about a year after the work began.
The house is let as two private adjoining villas, separately or together. The bedrooms are five twin or double, each with a bathroom. The main building holds four of them and sleeps up to ten, with sofa-beds for the extra places. The second is the old blacksmiths next door: a studio with its own small kitchen, the woodwork painted lime green, and a bedroom, sleeping up to three.
Marble cut on the island
Tinos still has working quarries and marble workers of unusual skill, and they made the floors, the tables and even the solid-marble basins for the bathrooms and the kitchen. The fanlights, the carved marble in the bathrooms and the pebbled terrace went to island craftsmen too, and the pebbles were laid in the patterns Tinos has always used. One kitchen window is 18th-century work, set under a marble fanlight carved with flowers and sailing boats. The original carved marble and plasterwork stayed where it was, and the modern bathrooms and kitchens went in beside it. Outside, the walls are lime-washed with loulaki, the old laundry blue, stirred into the mix the way it has always been done.
The pool, the terrace and the gardens
The terrace is 150m2 marble, with the original wood-fired oven, an outdoor kitchen and seating, a pergola over a ten-seater table and a traditional Tinos dovecote. The pool is 5.5 x 8.5m, spring-fed, and lined in ground-marble cement. A columnar sculpture stands in the garden, balanced from beach stones the Tinos sea wore smooth. It is Peter Marston’s own work, and he trained at St Martin’s Sculpture School.
Rebuilt stone terraces step up towards the mountain under ancient mulberries left from the days when silk was made at the house, with cedars, walnuts, almonds and fruit trees among them. A vineyard has been planted to produce rosé from 2026, and the vegetable gardens stock the kitchens. The restoration insulated the buildings, fitted low-energy heat exchangers for heating and cooling, put the power on green electricity and collects rainwater.
The crossing and what guests do
Xinara, pedestrian, 10 to 15 minutes from Tinos town and the port, has a free car park at its edge. Tinos is 2 to 4 hours by ferry from Athens and 15 to 30 minutes from Mykonos. Jenny Prinea, the house manager, has lived on the island her whole life and organises what guests do while they are there. She can arrange private tastings at Tinian vineyards, Volacus and O-Tionos among them, the second working the Assyrtiko grape. A restored kaiki runs across to Delos early enough to land ahead of the Mykonos ferries, then on to deserted Rineia for a swim and a picnic.
Who is this for
Xinara House sleeps 2 to 13 across the two villas, and suits a party taking the whole of it in a working village; a couple can take the blacksmiths studio alone. Old stone walls enclose the gardens. There are two public laundries left from the past, a great many cats and a taverna a couple of minutes away. Tracks lead from the door to the mountain and down to old villages, and Kolymbithra, sandy and with a bar, is a short drive away.
