Property market
Scottish castles and estates for which it’s worth going that extra mile
MORE than 800 years of turbulent Scottish history sit lightly on the castellated walls of majestic Seton Castle near Longniddry, on the Firth of Forth, some 10 miles from Edinburgh’s vibrant city centre. Robert Adam’s last Scottish masterpiece, it sits in gracious splendour within 13½ acres of lush lawns and paddocks, surrounded by the rolling fields and woodland of East Lothian’s famous golf coast.
The castle, listed Category A, became Scotland’s most expensive private house when, in 2007, it was sold for a reputed £5 million. Now, following an ‘exacting’ restoration of both the fabric and the interior of the entire building, it remains Scotland’s most expensive house as it returns to the market priced at ‘offers over £8m’ through Savills (0131– 247 3738) and Rettie & Co (0131–220 4160).
Seton Castle was built on the site of Seton Palace, historic seat of the Earls of Winton, a title bestowed in 1600 on the 8th Lord Seton, Robert. It was held by his descendants until George Seton, the 5th Earl, was convicted of high treason in 1716, thereby forfeiting his titles and property. Centuries before, the palace was the ‘preferred retreat’ of Mary, Queen of Scots, and visited by successive kings from James IV to Charles II.
Following the 5th Earl’s fall from grace, the palace suffered 75 years of neglect and was eventually demolished when, in 1789,
Col Alexander Mackenzie of the 21st Dragoons commissioned Robert Adam to build Seton Castle in his inimitable neo-classical style. The demolition of the palace provided a ready supply of stone for the new building and, in June 1791, Adam dined with his client in the new house, on his last visit to Scotland before his death.
On Mackenzie’s death in 1796, the Earl of Wemyss acquired the estate; it was to stay in the Wemyss family until 2003, during which time the castle remained largely untouched. Widely recognised as one of Adam’s most striking late houses in the castellated style, it comprises several towers shaped around a curved wall that encloses a courtyard entered by a central archway.
The latest two-year-long restoration saw a team of expert stonemasons rebuild the castle’s many chimneys, turrets and parapets, using painstakingly sourced period sandstone and limestone. Internally, all services have been renewed, ceilings and ironwork restored to their original beauty, the sweeping staircase reinvigorated and a 10,000-bottle wine cellar brought back to life. Existing pine flooring was replaced by French oak and discreet, state-of-the-art central-heating, entertainment and security systems installed, with the interior further enhanced by the use of rich silks, velvets, damasks, Scottish wools and cashmere sourced from some of the world’s leading designers.
The castle offers more than 18,000sq ft of opulent living space. The main building has accommodation on four floors, including the impressive Grand Hall, three large reception rooms, a library, music room, billiard room, a huge kitchen, a sumptuous master suite, five further bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The east and west wings provide two further three-bedroom guest or staff cottages. The working stables have also been restored, as have the coach house and the ‘unforgettable’ Stable Bar—the castle’s private tavern located in the former tack room.
Beyond the limits of Edinburgh’s prosperous commuter belt, the outlook among leading country-house agents remains surprisingly positive, despite a lack of supply. As one leading agent remarked, ‘here in Scotland, we’ve had so much thrown at us in recent years that we’ve all learnt to put our heads down and just get on with our lives’. However, most will admit that
For someone with courage, Craig Castle represents the opportunity of a lifetime
today’s buyers are cautious about buying country houses that don’t offer another string to their bow, in the form of good sporting facilities, a working farm or established holiday lets, with proximity to an airport seen as a major advantage.
Galbraith (01463 224343) are joint agents with Knight Frank (0131–222 9600) in the sale—for ‘offers over £2.35m—of the charming, 358-acre Holme Rose amenity estate at Croy in the Nairn Valley. Close to the Moray Firth and four miles from Inverness airport, I’m told a flight to London takes a commutable hour and 20 minutes. The pleasant coastal town of Nairn is nine miles to the north-east, with Inverness city centre 10 miles to the south-west.
Holme Rose (which means ‘farm of the Roses’) stands near to Kilravock Castle, the historic seat of the Rose clan. The estate was sold in the 1930s to Brig James Stirling of Fairburn, before being bought, in 1969, by Lord Campbell of Croy, the father of the present owner. Lord Campbell was Secretary of State for Scotland in the early 1970s and regularly received British and international politicians and other dignitaries at Holme Rose.
The original farmhouse was built in the mid 18th century and gentrified by Col Rose who, in 1820, added the Classical Georgian front, using locally sourced Nairn pink stone. The present house, listed Category A, is currently let on a short-term tenancy and has three main reception rooms, eight principal bedrooms and four bathrooms, with two first-floor flats providing a further six bedrooms. It comes with a gate lodge, two estate cottages and two further cottages in need of refurbishment.
The house stands in more than 15 acres of formal gardens and grounds, including a former walled garden, listed Category C. The farmland at Holme Rose consists of 194 acres of farmland, currently down to grass and let to a local grazier, and 149 acres of woodland—a mix of mature broadleaf along the riverbank and east and west driveways, together with some more commercial blocks. The estate also offers 1½ miles of single-bank salmon and sea-trout fishing on the River Nairn, with opportunities for roe-deer stalking and the potential to create a pheasant shoot.
Tom Stewart-moore of Knight Frank (0131–222 9600) has another stellar offering in the shape of the scenic, 219-acre Finnich Malise estate near Drymen, Stirlingshire— for sale as a whole at ‘offers over £2.45m’ or in two lots. Located 20 miles from Glasgow Airport, the estate enjoys spectacular views across the Endrick Valley to Ben Lomond in the north, the hills above Loch Lomond to the west and east along the Campsie Hills towards Stirling, 23 miles away.
Lot 1, at £2.3m, comprises the imposing, B-listed Georgian main house, with four reception rooms, eight bedrooms and five bathrooms, plus a separate two-bedroom garden flat, gate lodge and a large sandstone steading converted into four holiday cottages, which produce a useful income. It comes with 61 acres of woodland and 82 acres of grazing. Lot 2, comprising a further 63 acres of paddocks and woodland, is offered at £150,000.
Finnich Malise House was built by a Glasgow hosier between 1806 and 1809, altered by his successor in the late 1800s and owned from 1928 to 1947 by Col and Mrs Shand, who remodelled the interior in the Edwardian style. It stands in some 25 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, including a twoacre walled garden and a Victorian summerhouse. The estate was bought in 1949 by the globetrotting Mitchell sisters, who kept it in immaculate condition before leaving it to a nephew. He let it until 1992, when it was bought by the current owners, who carried out a complete refurbishment of the main house and developed the steading.
Fresh on the market through Strutt & Parker (0131–226 2500), at a guide price of £1.23m for the whole, or in five lots, comes the historic, 1,562-acre Craig Castle estate between the villages of Rhynie and Lumsden in the foothills of the Grampian Mountains, on the Highland fringe of Aberdeenshire. Located just north of Strathdon on the road to The Cabrach—billed as one of the top 30 most remote zones of mainland Scotland—the estate is secluded, but accessible. Its closest airport is Aberdeen, 33 miles away, said to be reachable by car in about 50 minutes.
Historical records from 1220 date the estate from about that time, when a timber castle is said to have stood where Craig Castle now stands. In 1510, James IV granted lands to Patrick Gordon, who commissioned the construction of the current building. He was reputedly killed at Flodden, leaving his son, William, to finish it. The castle remained a Gordon stronghold until 1832, when it was sold to the Craik family. Today, the Craig estate is owned by the Barlas family, descendants of the Craiks.
For sale for ‘offers over £400,000’, Lot 1 comprises the heart of the original estate, comprising the fortified, 16th-century Craig Castle, listed Category A, set in 63 acres of gardens, grounds and mature woodland in the glen of the Burn of Craig. The castle was extended in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and now has some 1,400sq ft of internal living space on four floors; its original core is described as ‘in need of renovation and repair’.
In the early 18th century, a new threestorey wing incorporating a grand hallway with a curved cantilevered staircase and two main rooms—thought to have been designed by William Adam—was built almost completely detached from the original castle. This was followed in the mid 19th century with a single-storey, doubleheight Georgian wing designed by an Aberdonian architect, Archibald Simpson.
Following a fire in 1942, this wing was rebuilt in 1951, by Col Alexander Barlas and Lady Gertrude Craik. Finally, in 1908, the most recent two-storey addition squared off the space between the original castle and the 1832 extension.
Craig Castle has served as a family home for several generations of the Barlas family and played host to countless guests for shoots, balls, dinner parties and all manner of other occasions. The currently habitable accommodation includes three reception rooms, nine bedrooms and seven bathrooms, with the 18th-century wing in particular being used by the owners on a regular basis for weekends and holidays.
For someone with the courage to go that extra mile, Craig Castle estate undoubtedly represents the challenge—and the opportunity—of a lifetime.