Glad to hear you've got power again Colin - that's a long stint without!
The house I grew up in also didn't have central heating and I also recall the ice inside the windows at times. All the houses I've owned myself have had it though, and it's certainly something I've come to rely on - in fact our current main house doesn't have any fireplaces (there is one built into the living room but walled over but we've never opened it up, and we've owned the house from new). We have had gas boiler failures from time to time in the 25 years we've owned it, but have never had a power outage of more than an hour or two so always had electric fires we could use as a back-up. Losing electric for an extended period as happened with our cottage in the Cairngorms last weekend isn't something we had a plan for, although give it does have a wood burner and a fire place we're at least better place there (where it's more likely to happen) than here.
I'll ask the locals if losing power is a regular occurence when we're back in Tomintoul at the weekend, and if it is then I'll definitely put a plan in place (either by allowing for generator use to ensure the boiler has power, or maybe just getting some stand-alone gas fires).