Enjoy life of a laird
Jute baron’s mansion is ready for 21st century living, says Paul Drury
AN imaginative new development on Scotland’s east coast gives you the chance to live like a Victorian jute baron, without the millions needed to buy his mansion. Alexander Gordon made his mark on Ashludie House, in Monifieth on the Tay Estuary, by having his initials and those of his wife carved into the stone above the porch when he had the house built in 1866.
For the gardens, the businessman sourced a specimen of every tree natural to Britain and supplemented them with imported Spanish chestnut, walnut and monkey puzzles.
Buyers are now being given the opportunity to ‘inherit’ part of Mr Gordon’s luxurious legacy by investing in one of the six remaining apartments available in the converted building.
The B-listed mansion is being transformed into ten flats and three houses.
As well as the modern touches required for 21st century living, the properties retain beautiful Victorian features, including the common entrance hall and its finely carved staircase and stained glass windows. The intricate mosaic flooring in the hallway is being restored and the principal rooms keep the splendour and dimensions of the highly decorative Victorian ceilings.
Ashludie enjoyed a significant place in Scottish history long before it was developed by Mr Gordon, the owner of a successful flax spinning business.
It first gets a mention in 1591, as the Grange, when it was gifted to William Durham by his father.
The Grange dates back further in time, to 1321 in fact, when the lands were granted by king robert the Bruce to an ancestor of the Durhams, a faithful knight.
Bringing the history of Ashludie House into the 20th century, it was purchased on the death of jute baron Mr Gordon by Dundee Corporation in 1913 for the grand sum of £7,500.
It was turned into a 60-bed sanitorium and over the next six decades served as one kind of medical facility or other.
Emergency wards were built in 1940 to care for air raid casualties and war wounded. Nearby Dundee was hit by a German air raid in November that year.
It is believed that the Luftwaffe were aiming to destroy the Tay Bridge but dropped their bombs instead over the city as they fled rAF fighters.
It was said Ashludie’s gardens and grounds were ‘very much appreciated’ by both patients and staff.
In comparison to bomb-hit Dundee or the killing fields of France, Ashludie House must have seemed like a verdant paradise.
The two and three-bedroom apartments feature gorgeous open-plan kitchen, dining and living spaces. Leicht kitchens will be installed by award-winning kitchen International, with a choice of doors and colours to personalise your home.
Siemens appliances include oven, fridge-freezer, dishwasher, induction hob and washer-dryer.
There’s underfloor heating in the bathrooms and each property will be wired for an integrated satellite TV system, with TV and BT points in living rooms and master bedrooms. And there’s something else which the jute baron didn’t have: two car parking spaces.
Prices from £172,950. Contact Whiteburn 01382 339 911 or email sales@whiteburn.co.uk.