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THE BSPC PROPERTY GUIDE / FEATURE PROPERTY
A good family house needs a good family location – like the village of Eddleston
As a lifestyle location, the village of Eddleston scores highly in almost every respect. It’s an attractive village by the Eddleston Water with good community activities, a local primary school, widely acclaimed restaurant and nearby hotel – more important, it’s in a dream location on the A703 which leads south to Peebles (under five miles) and north to Penicuik, which is not more than a 10-15 minute drive. From there it’s only a short distance to the Edinburgh City Bypass junction at Straiton, a total drive time of under 30 minutes. The location is a major attraction for many other reasons. Walkers love this part of the Borders and as Eddleston lies between the Meldon Hills on the west and the Moorfoot Hills on the east, it’s a Mecca for outdoor enthusiasts – a single-track road goes from the village over the Black and White Meldons (and a historic Roman camp) to Lyne on the A72 Glasgow Road. Eddleston is also conveniently close to Glentress Forest, which apart from having glorious walks is now one of the top mountain biking venues in the UK. It was the rural location and options for walkers that attracted Douglas Mitchell and his wife Valerie to the village 20 years ago.
With two young children at the time, they were looking for a good-sized family house – and they found it in a newly built detached four bedroomed villa on a small Tay Homes’ development. “We were the first owners,” says Douglas, who has meticulously maintained and improved the property in the interim. The garden, now mature, well stocked and large enough to provide shady secluded seating areas, is a particular feature. Being split-level gives the house a double identity; from the front it looks like a one -level bungalow with a single garage. . . however from the back, it’s an impressive -looking two-storey with a large balcony on the first floor. Overlooking the rear garden, the balcony is a major feature, accessible by patio doors in the formal dining room and by glazed French doors in the 20ft-plus living room. Entered on what is the top floor level, the accommodation here includes a hall with glazed double doors opening into the living room, which has another set of glazed doors into the dining room – bright rooms made even brighter by the addition of all the connecting doors.
There’s also a large 18ft dining kitchen, front facing double bedroom with built-in wardrobes and an en suite shower room that can also be accessed from the hall. A carpeted staircase leads down, not up, to a lower hall, off which is the main bedroom with fitted wardrobes and an attractive en suite shower room, plus a further two bedrooms – one with fitted wardrobes – family bathroom, and a utility/laundry room (more conveniently on the same level as the bedrooms). The rooms are spacious and having one bedroom and shower room on the first albeit effectively the ground floor is a convenient arrangement for guests.
11 Bellfield Crescent Eddleston
The kitchen is well equipped, fitted on three sides with wood-effect units, tiled splashbacks and worktops and integrated appliances – gas hob, overhead extractor and built-in electric oven and microwave. The Mitchells have carried out numerous improvements over the years – cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and a new central heating boiler were installed two years ago. The house is decorated in neutral tones, with laminate flooring throughout the hall and public rooms. All the 30 or so houses on this estate have LPG central heating systems fed by communal storage tanks on the edge of the estate. The houses are therefore all independently metered.
Offers Around £254,000 Details on page 28