Island home was Scott’s inspiration
IN the dinner party one-upmanship stakes, owning your own island on Loch Lomond has to be the icing on the cake. To prove that your home helped inspire the author of The Lady of the Lake amounts to placing the cherry on top. These are the delicious ingredients that Penny Hutton can mix into the postprandial conversation whenever she’s tempted to impress fellow guests.
The property which affords her such elevated status is Gartochraggan, an assembly of lochside farmhouse, converted bothies and a variety of extensions which have graced the Bonnie Banks since around 1800.
In his book Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine and The Trossachs, George Eyre-Todd recounts a visit to a nearby property by Sir Walter Scott, pictured.
He wrote: ‘Here, the “Great Unknown” got much of his material for his The Lady of the Lake and Rob Roy.
‘And in the first floor bedroom, looking across to the Pass of Balmaha, he wrote a great part of the latter tale.
‘Gartochraggan or Town Foot, a farmhouse in full view of the room where he wrote, was the “Graschttachan” of the romance.’
Aber Isle was snapped up around the Millennium by a previous resident, providing a Swallows and Amazons adventure for any child living there.
The small sandbank, which has trees and is home to hundreds of birds, is thought to have been uninhabited for centuries.
Legend has it, however, that the missionary St Kessog landed here to rest when he visited the area in the 6th Century.
‘Aber’ is an old Celtic word for ‘rivermouth’, and the isle sits close to the River Endrick. Owner Mrs Hutton said: ‘It adds a bit of romance to the property. Not many people have an island.
‘It’s not very big but it lies off our private beach.
‘The kids paddle out there on their canoes and my husband’s been out there as well. The previous owners used to organise an egg hunt at Easter time, which sounds great fun.’
Another ‘island’ she’ll miss when she leaves the house near Gartocharn is her kitchen. She added: ‘The kitchen is fantastic. We’ve extended the sun room to become part of the kitchen, making the most of the light and the views to the Loch and Ben Lomond.
‘I don’t often have a light on in the kitchen because the natural light is so good. Yes, it saves on electricity but it’s really better to work in natural light.’ What is described in the sales brochure as a ‘kitchen wing’ comes with oak carpentry under a granite work surface. There’s the mandatory Aga and the ‘other’ island, hosting the sink.
The ground floor contains a wealth of accommodation, from the roomy reception hall with wood-burning stove, boot room, large drawing room, games room, office and two of the property’s seven bedrooms. Five more bedrooms lie upstairs, the master containing a lovely dressing room. There’s also a shower room on this landing along with two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms has a free-standing rolltop bath, with spectacular views of the loch.
And it’s the panorama which is this property’s unique selling point. Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is all around you. Your nearest neighbour is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Reside here and you can watch the weather sweeping darkly towards you down the iconic waters of the loch.
Finally, there’s the dining room, which can easily accommodate a sitting of ten or 12 people at a dinner party with a view.
Surely, you would be itching to drop into the conversation, ‘Oh, did I mention we have an island out the back?’
Offers over £1.5 million to Cameron Ewer of Savills. Tel 0141 222 5875 or email cameron.ewer@savills.com