For sale, Highland mansion with £12m off asking price
AT offers over £3million, it is the perfect home for someone with deep pockets, a desire for solitude and an eye f or a spectacular bargain.
The island estate of Eilean Aigas, used as a holiday home by one of Bill Gates’s best friends, was on the market only two years ago at a ‘ knockdown’ £15million.
But estate agents could not find a buyer, blaming a downturn in the ‘country market’, political instability over the independence referendum and a row over plans to erect unsightly power lines on the island in the River Beauly in Inverness-shire.
Now the ‘extraordinary’ 28,000sq ft mansion and 547-acre ‘garden’ belonging to Canadian telecoms tycoon Brendan Clouston is set to be auctioned with bids set to start at £12million less than the previous asking price.
Auctioneers expect this to be exceeded but Mr Clouston is unlikely to recoup the
‘Very imposing but hidden and private’
£ 20million he spent t o create his hideaway.
The estate, which was once a favourite with such illustrious visitors as Sir Robert Peel and Sir Compton Mackenzie, includes 480 acres of woodlands and a four-bedroom hunting lodge, with salmon fishing rights and deer stalking. The house boasts eight bedrooms, a cinema, gym and library.
The estate dates back to the 1830s and when Mr Clouston bought it from a Malaysian businessman in 2001, he embarked on a six-year project to completely rebuild the house in the style of a 17th century mansion.
Evelyn Channing of estate agent Savills in Edinburgh said: ‘It really is an extraordinary house, very imposing and grand, but hidden and private at the same time.’
Mr Clouston has admitted that his decision to sell was influenced in part by the row over the plans for nearby power lines.
He still hopes to find a buyer before the house goes to auction, for offers over £3million, at Savills, London, on September 21.