The glorious view of sweeping hills and gleaming lochs
Fettercairn estate (Fig 2) in Aberdeenshire has gone under offer, following its launch in June for ‘offers over £15m’ through Savills. For sale as a whole, or in four lots, at its heart is a grand, 22,880sq ft, Jacobean mansion, created around a 17th-century core, by William Burn in the 1820s and Robert Lorimer in the 1890s, and beautifully renovated by the present owners.
The sale includes 22 further estate houses, 1,345 acres of arable land, 281 acres of pasture, 1,840 acres of rough grazing and 562 acres of commercial and amenity woodland.
Following the sale in lots, through Savills and CKD Galbraith, of the Cayzer family’s 5,400-acre Kinpurnie estate in Angus after it failed to find a single buyer at its original £29m asking price, Savills (0131–247 3720) and Davis & Bowring (01524 274430) are joint agents in the sale of the 21,768-acre Tulchan estate (Fig 3) on Speyside, whose guide price of ‘offers over £25m’ makes it the most expensive ‘whole’ Scottish estate currently on the market.
Described as ‘a sporting Utopia’ and ‘simply one of the best all-round sporting estates in Scotland’, Tulchan occupies a glorious position on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park and is easily accessible by road, rail and air. Running through the estate is Scotland’s third longest river, the majestic River Spey, whose eight miles of double-bank fishing has earned Tulchan Water the accolade of one of the finest stretches of fly water in Europe.
In addition, the estate offers redand roe-deer stalking, two driven grouse moors, hill-loch fishing and an ‘esteemed’ driven pheasant shoot. Overlooking the Spey valley at the heart of the estate is Tulchan Lodge, a 13-bedroom Edwardian shooting lodge built by George Mccorquodale in 1906 and ideally suited to large house parties, with alternative accommodation provided by the modern stone-built, six-bedroom Knocktulchan Lodge and a number of holiday cottages scattered around the estate.
It’s all vested in a limited company, Tulchan Sporting Estates Ltd, which is wholly owned by the vendors, Derbyshire businessman Leon Litchfield and his wife, Gillian, who bought the estate in 1993. Transfer of ownership will be effected by means of a sale of the shares in the company, whose assets also include a productive in-hand farm, five let farms, extensive natural woodland and forestry and various development sites.
Evelyn Channing of Savills is also handling the sale of the historic and picturesque Leckie estate (Fig 4) near Gargunnock, Stirlingshire, previously owned by former Scottish Secretary Sir George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger, who died in 2003, and, following the death of his widow, Diana, is now being sold on behalf of their family.
An ancient and originally much larger estate owned by the Crown, Leckie was granted to Malcolm de Leky in the 1350s. The Leckies remained in possession until 1668, when the estate was sold to the Moir