A Scottish pilgrimage EVERY WEEK AUGUST 24, 2022 58 pages of property for sale Still a showstopper: The Lady of Shalott Saluting The Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland Jura, Iona and the Caledonian Canal
F ROM grand country houses to farms and estates, from remote Highland lodges to coastal retreats, buyers in Scotland are currently spoilt for choice. This week, we take a look at some of the most exciting properties currently on the market north of the Border.
In 1790, renowned Scottish architects Robert and James Adam designed Glencarse House in the Carse of Gowrie, a 20-mile stretch of fertile land on the north shore of the Firth of Tay between Perth and Dundee, for estate owner Thomas Hunter. Listed Category C and still one of Perthshire’s most impressive country houses, handsome Glencarse House, set in 18½ acres of gardens and parkland looking south over farmland towards Fife on the south bank of the Firth of Tay, is for sale through Knight Frank (0131–222 9608) and Rettie & Co (0131–220 4160) for ‘offers over £2.15 million’. In his book The Fair Land of Gowrie (Culross & Son, 1939), author Lawrence Melville describes Glencarse as it stood then: ‘The original mansion is of Adam design. It was greatly enlarged in the 19th and 20th centuries by the addition of wings in the east and west. Stone steps and the balustrade have been placed at the front and altogether the house has been completely modernised.’ It is further described as ‘a beautiful sheltered residence’ and the grounds as being ‘taste fully laid out… the trees embrace many rare specimens, some of which were imported many years ago from the Himalayas’. During their 20-year tenure, the present owners have further modernised the house, which comes with a gate lodge and a courtyard of outbuildings and offers 15,874sq ft of living space on three floors, with a two-bedroom flat, stores and a wine cellar on the lower ground floor. The accommodation includes, at ground-floor level, an entrance hall, three fine reception rooms, billiards room, family room, study and a 1930s hothouse/conserv atory, with the principal bedroom suite, five further bedrooms and three bathrooms on the first floor, and a further two/three bedrooms and a family bathroom on the floor above.
114 | Country Life | August 24, 2022 Lochs, burns, wild mountains, cattle, fishing, shooting and grouse moors: Scotland has it all in spades, as these properties show Pride of Scotland
Nine miles north of Forfar and four miles from the A90 road that links Dundee with Aberdeen, Tom Stewart-Moore of Knight Frank is handling the sale of the pictur esque, 37-acre Easter Ogil estate at Glenogil, the valley of the Noran Water, which flows along its western boundary. He wants ‘offers over £1.45m’ for the wonderfully private small estate in the heart of the Angus Glens, Above left: Glencarse House, Perthshire, was designed by Robert and James Adam. Offers over £2.15m. Above: Easter Ogil, Angus, has fine salmon fishing. £1.45m
Property market Penny Churchill
August 24, 2022 | Country Life | 115 Find the best properties at countrylife.co.uk home to some of Scotland’s finest grouse moors, with excellent salmon fishing avail able on the nearby Rivers Tay, North and South Esk, Dee and Don. Surrounded by beautifully maintained formal gardens, a bank of mixed woodland and three paddocks of parkland grazing, charming, mid-19th-century Easter Ogil House has four reception rooms, eight bed rooms and three bathrooms. It comes with two estate cottages and a range of traditional farm buildings with potential for develop ment, subject to planning.
Further north again, Evelyn Channing, Savills’s first lady of Scottish country prop erty (0131–247 3720), is overseeing the sale, due to the retirement of the present incum bent, of the 1,086-acre Tillyfour residential and livestock farm in rural Aberdeenshire, 5½ miles from Alford and 25 miles west of Aberdeen. It is being sold either as a whole for ‘offers over £7m’, or in two lots, Lot 1 comprising the handsome, six-bedroom Georgian main house with five cottages, the farm steading and 735 acres, for which ‘offers over £4.8m’ are sought. Lot 2 comprises Cairnhill Farm with its three-bedroom farmhouse, two cottages and 350 acres, at ‘offers over £2.2m’. Tillyfour has a longstanding history with Aberdeen Angus cattle dating back to 1820, when William McCombie took on the lease from his father and set out to build up his own herd. He crossed Angus ‘Doddies’ with Aberdeen ‘Hummlies’ to produce the sturdy, hornless, amenable breed we know today. From 1832 onwards, McCombie won more than 500 major awards for his cattle at agri cultural shows throughout the UK and Europe. In the late 1860s, Queen Victoria visited Tillyfour to officially recognise the Aberdeen Angus breed. To mark the occasion, a new wing was added to Tillyfour House. Not being very tall, Her Majesty would have been unable to see over the hedge to the field in front of the house from a ground-floor room and she is recorded as having sat in the new firstfloor drawing room (now the principal Queen Victoria visited Tillyfour to recognise the AngusAberdeenbreed Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire, is available as a 1,086-acre whole or in two lots. £7m
Linton Burnfoot is being sold, either as a whole for ‘offers over £3.1m’ or in three lots. Lot 1, comprising Linton Burnfoot Farmhouse, steading and paddock, 15 acres in all, is available for ‘offers over £800,000’; originally built in the 1740s, remodelled in the early 1800s and extended in 1998, the comfortable, seven-bedroom, stone farmhouse has been brilliantly adapted for family country life. Lot 2, Linton Burnfoot Farm with 485 acres, is for sale for ‘offers over £2m’, whereas Lot 3, two arable fields, 39 acres in all, is available for ‘offers over £300,000’ (0131–247 3720).
Over in the west, the coastline of south Ayrshire is known for its rich and varied landscape, lovely beaches, horse racing and riding and championship golf courses at Royal Above: Water’s Edge sits on the rocky Ayrshire coast. £2.3m. Right: Mixed farm Linton Burnfoot in the Borders is being offered as a whole or as three lots. £3.1m
116 | Country Life | August 24, 2022 Property market bedroom) to watch the parade of cattle in what is still known as the Bull Field. With the Cheviot Hills to the south and the more open farmland of Berwickshire to the north, the central Scottish Borders not only offer some of the most beautiful countryside in the south of Scotland, but is a region renowned for productive farmland, forestry and exciting country sports. Here, Savills are handling the sale of Linton Burnfoot, described as ‘a spectacular mixed farm with a first-class shoot’, seven miles from Kelso and 12 miles from Jedburgh. The ringfenced, 540-acre farm sits in an unspoilt and tranquil setting in a valley spanning Kale Water, a 20-mile-long tributary of the River Teviot. In recent years, it has been run as a stock farm with the emphasis on producing fat lambs finished off grass, under a contract farming agreement that expires on November 30, 2022. It is also the setting for an excellent driven pheasant and duck-flighting shoot.
Below: Lagg estate in the isolated Assynt National Scenic Area, Sutherland. £1.2m Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry. James Denne of Knight Frank in Melrose (01896 807013) seeks ‘offers in excess of £2.3m’ for the striking, architect-designed Water’s Edge at Maidens, 1½ miles from Turnberry and 14 miles from Ayr, a relatively painless com mute from central Glasgow.
The use of glass throughout the house is a major feature of Water Edge’s design, notably in the full-height window wall of the lounge and galleried landing. The house offers 9,315sq ft of dramatic living space with four reception rooms, four bedrooms and four bathrooms laid out on the upper and mezzanine floors, with a cinema, bar and dining area in the base ment. It stands in just under 2¾ acres of landscaped gardens, with parking for six cars.
If a quiet country life in dreamy south-west Scotland is the ideal, Strutt & Parker (01738 567892) can provide the reality in the shape of Category B-listed Spottes House, which stands in 34 acres of gardens, grounds and woodland on the edge of the tranquil village of Haugh of Urr, three miles from Castle Douglas and 12 miles from Dumfries. Yet the Solway coast at Kippford, with its splendid beaches, marinas and safe moorings, is a mere 20-minute drive away.
For years, a modest fisherman’s cottage stood on The Knowes, a rocky outcrop just south of Maidens, where Water’s Edge now stands. This was also the site of a shipyard owned by the Marquess of Ailsa, who was lord of Culzean Castle and chief of Clan Kennedy. Racing yachts built and launched from the slipway, the remains of which can still be seen, include one for legendary yachtsman Sir Thomas Lipton and a trans atlantic yacht built for Lord Ailsa himself.
Spottes House was built in about 1790, when it was known as Spottes Hall, with additions in 1873 and 1887, when the house was extended to its current layout. It was renovated and had its roof replaced in the 1990s, since when the present owners have completely refur bished the interior, updating electrical and heating systems and installing a gym, sauna and cinema. Spottes House now provides some 10,400sq ft of light-and-airy living space on three floors, including four main reception rooms, five bathrooms and two home offices, with additional six-bedroom accommodation in the Courtyard House adjoining the walled garden. The beautifully maintained Victorian gardens and grounds, which include a grass bowling green, tennis court and loch with a boat house, are a delight, and a pond is a haven for wildlife, with herons, swans and roe deer regular visitors. The agents seek ‘offers over £2.45m’ for this idyllic property, which comes with an arboretum, a 3½-acre field and riverbank and salmon fishing rights on the Urr Water.
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Above: Spottes House, Dumfries and Galloway, has a loch and a boathouse. £2.45m.
The Lagg estate includes six named hill lochs with riparian rights on the larger Loch Poll and two residential properties: threebedroom Lagg House and four-bedroom Fearna Cottage. The current owners have run the estate on the basis of its sporting assets, with fishing on the hill lochs for wild brown and stocked rainbow trout. There is also enjoyable woodcock shooting, with about 150 pheasants annually providing a small number of shoots for family and friends around Christmas and New Year.
Finally, with splendid isolation in mind, the Inverness office of Strutt & Parker (01463 723593) seeks ‘offers over £1.2m’ for the 618-acre Lagg estate at Lochinver, in the sparsely populated Assynt National Scenic Area north of Ullapool in south-west Sutherland— a still-quiet landscape of lochs, lochans, rivers and burns in a wild mountain terrain bounded by a rugged coastline. The area provides a majestic setting for walking, climbing, fishing and sailing, or simply getting away from it all.
The use of glass throughout the house is a major feature
Irresistible bolthole properties in glorious Scotland
Clackmannanshire, offers over £1.5 million Surrounded by 34 acres of parkland with mature trees and far-reaching views, handsome Scots baronial Brankstone Grange Castle offers almost 11,000sq ft of accommodation, mostly over three floors, with an extra two levels in the castellated tower. There are eight bedrooms in total—three, including the master, have corner turrets—and the interior has been well renovated by the current owners. This would make an idyllic family home, located near the village of Bogside, near Alloa, Blairhall and Clackmannan and 25 miles from Edinburgh airport—and further opportunities for prospective buyers are presented with current planning permission for the construction of 15 luxury chalets; there’s also a ruined cottage (above) that needs renovating. Strutt & Parker (01738 783350)
North of the border
Outer Hebrides, offers over £400,000 In an Atlantic sweet spot between North and South Uist, the Isle of Benbecula can be reached by flights from Glasgow or ferries from Skye and Oban. Here, two-bedroom Ceol Na Mara—which means ‘music of the sea’ in Gaelic—and accompanying one-bedroom cottage Bayview, in the small crofting settlement of Griminish, make the most of their surroundings, with views of a never-ending horizon from almost every room. The island’s beaches have clean, white sand and the machair along the dunes is home to corncrake. Bell Ingram (01463 717799)
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Properties of the week Elwes
Annunciata
Borders, £600,000 In an elevated, rural spot above the Jedwater Valley and overlooking the pretty town of Jedburgh, with its famous ruined abbey, Victorian villa Antylands has five bedrooms and plenty of period features, such as fireplaces and decorative plasterwork; the interiors, although in good pro portion and with tons of natural light, do need updating. The lovely terraced garden includes mature trees, a summerhouse and bountiful orchard of apple and plum trees, and there’s also a paddock and large field for grazing with its own water supply within nearly four acres.
Knight Frank (01896 807013) Isle of Arran, excess £350,000 There can be no better escape from the world than Pladda Rock, a 28-acre island less than a mile off the south coast of Arran, visited by no one but its owner and flocks of migratory seabirds, including Arctic terns, shags and turnstones, who use it as an important stop-over and breeding ground— although there is a helipad, too, for a different sort of flight. Travelling by boat, you come into a sheltered concrete jetty on Pladda’s eastern edge, or a historical landing point at the northwest tip, just below a stone-and-slate bothy, which, added to the five bedrooms within the former lighthouse keeper’s accommodation (needs upgrading), makes the island large enough for a family. A lovely 2½-acre walled garden, previously used by keepers to grow fruit and vegetables, needs bringing back to life and there are various outbuildings with development potential. Northern Ireland can be seen on a clear day, Arran and Aisla Craig in most weathers and the former is only 15 minutes away by boat, where the village of Kildonan has a shop and post office. The closest airport is Campbeltown on the Kintyre Peninsula (21 miles), with flights to Glasgow.
9000
offersMidlothian,over£975,000 Within the conservation area of Juniper Green, a popular village on the outskirts of Edinburgh (with all the convenience that entails), sits handsome Hunters House, a C-listed Georgian property of 1825 that enjoys south-facing views over the Pentland Hills. The pretty vinecovered garden room is a highlight, as are the integral wooden shutters and fireplaces galore and the five-bedroom house has been well cared for. Savills (0131–247 3770)
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Knight Frank (0131–222 9608)
Properties of the week
