Eardley rented a cottage in the small fishing village of Catterline from 1954, and thereafter divided her time between Catterline and Glasgow. Her cottage, No. 1 South Row, can be seen at the far left of the painting, though by the time this work was painted she was using it as a picture store and she lived in a more comfortable house in the centre of the village. Perched on the clifftop and at the mercy of the elements rolling in off the North Sea, the cottages seem to be bracing themselves for a hard winter.