From Scottish castle to the Coast’s canals
A COLOURFUL couple of aristocrats have moved out from under the steely skies over their centuries-old Scottish castle to the clear blue canalfront of Broadbeach Waters.
David Cairns, Baron of Finavon, and his wife Lady Victoria Cairns of Finavon, landed their new home for $1.4 million last month and are settling in with their Shetland sheepdogs Frederick Angus Cairns and Lachie Angus Cairns.
It’s a homecoming for Adelaide-born Ms Cairns, who left Australia to marry her beau after they met in Singapore more than 30 years ago.
Mr Cairns has since hauled his wife’s Singer sewing machine to homes in Britain, the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands and more as the pair repeatedly relocated as his corporate career took them around the world.
The avid historian and venture capitalist has held top management positions around the globe, has floated major companies and chaired ScotlandIS, the trade body for the information and communications technologies industry in Scotland.
He is also a founder of the National Museum of Scotland and a Fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries.
Not that Ms Cairns is to be outdone – her work is also in demand across the world, with her painstakingly-created, historically-accurate porcelain dolls fetching up to $10,000 apiece.
Having left her kiln and moulds behind, Ms Cairns has turned her attention to equally breathtaking fabric dolls, recreated from famous works of art and costumed in immaculate detail.
The couple had lived in the 10-bedroom Urrard House, on a sprawling estate at Killiecrankie in the County of Perth, where a famous battle was waged, ending the lives of 2000 men in 1689. But the pair’s beloved shelties bear the middle names of Angus in honour of Finavon, a hamlet in the county of Angus where ruins of a 14th-century castle rest beside the 18th-century country house where they spent much of their lives.
The Finavon property, a national monument from where the couple’s titles were born, was built by Lindsay Earls of Crawford circa the 1300s, but is home to the ruins of a far older building – a vitrified hillfort from the Iron Age, dated from around 500 BCE.
A Scottish barony, not to be confused with an English barony, is not an automatic or inherited right – a prospective baron must present themself to the Lord Lyon of Scotland, the Queen’s representative in the northern nation, for anointing. The couple attained their titles in 1999. They have lived in Scotland for the past 15 years – and it’s difficult to imagine a more different place to live.
“The Scots are dour, a bit serious and a trifly bit grim,” Ms Cairns said. “And I do believe it’s the weather – everything looks a bit drab. I think Australia is the best country in the world for everything, and the Gold Coast is a very well-kept secret.”
Mr Cairns said the Scottish term “dreich”, describing the grey sky leaking drizzly rain and an approaching mist, provided fair contrast from their new life.
“One of the things that I like here is that we’ve got the swans and fish and other wildlife, while we lived in Scotland we had cows and geese and horses,” he said.
“Victoria is enjoying having neighbours, our nearest neighbour in Scotland was a long way away.”
Mr Cairns said he was committed to the preservation of Finavon Castle, and had some motivation from the past – and the future
Thomas the Rhymer, a 13th century “laird” and “seer”, a poetic prophet, wrote about the monument.
“When Finavon Castle runs to sand, the end of the world is close at hand.”