Castle cure for workaday woes
GP set to hand over keys to secluded mansion
LIVING the good life is just what the doctor ordered. And never more so than at enchanting Ellon Castle.
This historic haven in the Aberdeenshire town of the same name was once owned by Sir James Reid, private physician to Queen Victoria.
Today the B-listed mansion – dating from 1724 – is home to GP Trish Donaldson, who for 34 years has devotedly cared for her patients in the nearby fishing port of Peterhead.
The castle – with its seven bedrooms, four reception rooms, five bathrooms and a separate coach house – may be grand, but it is filled with the warmth generated by decades of laughter and love.
Cuddling her Bichon Frise pooch Hugo on the bay window seat of the stately drawing room, Trish says: “I have raised four wonderful children here. It has been a comfortable, lovely family home. And it’s seen some amazing 21st birthday parties and formal dinners.”
Ellon Castle is set in more than three beautiful acres of woodland and gardens which have been a playground to daughters Katie, now 30 and also a GP, Lucy, 28, who is training to be a GP, and 24-year-old twins Andrew, a trainee accountant, and Gillian, a consultant.
Its secluded gardens have brought hours of peace and joy to the busy GP. Yet the castle is just a stone’s throw for the town and its great eateries and golf and sporting facilities.
Trish, 57, recalls: “We moved in 29 years ago. I loved it the moment I saw it but it was quite run down. It needed to be rewired, re-plumbed and re-decorated. The garden also needed a lot of work, but gradually over the years it was transformed.”
Natural wooden floorboards were also stripped and renovated, fireplaces that had long been unused were reinstated, and a new, traditional kitchen was installed five years ago.
The castle’s period features were retained and its décor – using only vintage colours and patterns – was chosen to reflect the home’s age and character.
And what a home it is; from its sweeping gravelled driveway, paved courtyard and patios to its marble-floored entrance hall and spacious sitting room with south facing windows, original oak fireplace and cast iron wood burning stove. It also boasts a magnificent L-shaped dining room and a study with French doors leading to the terraced garden with views over the woodland and deer park.
The castle’s circular tower houses ‘The Wine Turret’, with flagstone flooring, arrow slit windows and original game hooks, while the luxury master bedroom suite has a circular dressing room within the tower and an open plan en suite bathroom with free standing, roll top, claw foot bath.
Trish is pensive as she takes in the haven she has cherished for almost three decades and which is now on the open market with Simpson and Marwick for offers over £850,000.
Then the fun-loving medic beams: “I am sorry to see it go but I am so excited about the future.”
She reveals: “I am finally retiring. Katie is based in Newcastle and has had a baby. And I will be dividing my time between my grandchild and my partner Raymond Sangster, who has a croft in the Highlands.
“But I will leave this castle knowing it will be a truly happy
home for its next custodian.”