The £5 mansion
Ruin transformed into palatial home worth £1.2m
IT began as a true labour of love – transforming a crumbling ruin back to its former glory.
For more than 15 years, blood, sweat and tears were spent on restoring the once magnificent Georgian mansion.
Now Belmont House, on Unst, Shetland, has been saved – and has earned i ts new owners a huge f i nancial windfall.
The property, which i s closer to Norway than Edinburgh, has just been valued at £1.2million – a far cry from the £5 it was sold for to the local Belmont Trust.
Transformed into a thriving business following its restoration, the house has now increased in value by 24 million per cent.
Trust chairman Mike Finnie said: ‘We approached the owner, there was no problem, he eventually accepted he wasn’t going to do anything with it. Now i t has a £ 1.2million i nsurance value.’
Belmont House was built in 1775 by Shetland merchant Thomas Mouat.
It stayed in his family until the 1970s, when it was sold to an Edinburgh architect, having lain empty for decades.
By the 1990s, plans to restore the house had not been realised and a group of locals formed the Belmont Trust in a bid to save it.
They managed to buy the building for only £5 after striking a deal with the owner.
Last year, it made a profit for the first time as a holiday let and wedding venue.
Yesterday, Mr Finnie described the condition of the mansion when the trust first got the keys.
He said: ‘We knew the roof was about to collapse. We got £40,000 emergency grant funding and eventually propped it up to stop the interior collapsing. You could stand in the basement and see up into the roof. The whole front of the house had rotted away.’
It wasn’t until 2010 that the restoration was finally completed. Mr Finnie said: ‘We spent years trying to get the money. Historic Scotland were the main funder. They were very helpful.
‘The Architectural Heritage Fund gave us a start-up grant for emergency work. There were lots of little trusts that helped.’
He explained that Belmont House had not been touched for many decades.
Some rooms still had their original colours. Others had been repainted once, some time in the 19th century.
Mr Finnie said: ‘We have painted the house as it was in 1775. It’s quite amazing for a house not to have been modified in 240 years.’
Belmont House is available for hire and can be rented for between £800 and £1,700 a week.
‘The money raised goes back into the house,’ said Mr Finnie. ‘We’re getting there. It made a modest profit last year.’
‘Lots of little trusts helped’