Toby and Kate McCartney, pictured above, from Eaglesfield, are spending the summer in Dalyan with their daughters India, 7, and Keira, 5.
They were sleeping in the early hours of Saturday when the 6.7 magnitude quake struck the country at 1.31 am. The epicentre was near Bodrum but it was felt by the family who are staying 189 kilometres away in their villa.
Toby, 40, said: “We were woken up by what felt like the bed floating on water, almost throwing us out of bed onto the floor. In my dream like state I thought our house had been flooded and so stood up expecting to have to bail us out. The whole room was moving, walls and everything and the light was swinging from side to side.
“I made my way to the window expecting to see us floating out to sea when I realised it was an earthquake. As I looked at the pool below in the garden, the water was spilling out in waves over the side. Everything I could see was moving.”
It only lasted for 20 to 30 seconds but Toby said: “It was quite scary because unlike many things in life, it was totally outside of our control. There was nowhere to go and nothing we could do was going to stop it.
“When the shaking stopped it took a while to settle ourselves. It was a little like stepping onto land after being on a sailing boat in rocky waters.”
However, their two children slept through the whole thing and when the McCartneys got up the next morning everything appeared normal.
Toby said: “You wouldn’t have thought anything had happened. There was no sign of any damage.”
Explaining that earthquake insurance is mandatory for all homeowners in Turkey, he said: “Our house is built on a concrete base, rather than having foundations because of the challenges with earthquakes. “We are only allowed to build to a height of two floors for safety in an earthquake.
“Although this earthquake measured 6.7 on the scale, smaller earthquakes are often felt in Turkey and the locals barely mentioned it.”
Two people died and hundreds more were injured in last weekend’s quake.
