For sale, home that helped to heal Queen Mum’s agony
IT was once fit for royalty and its remote beauty persuaded the Queen Mother to buy a nearby castle as her private home.
Dunnet Estate, near Thurso in Caithness, was where the grieving royal widow retreated in 1952 while mourning the death of her husband, King George VI.
Now the spectacular estate is to be auctioned. The central feature of the £925,000 property is the imposing House of the Northern Gate, where the Queen Mother stayed while in mourning.
During her stay with close friend Lady Doris Vyne at the ten-bedroom home, she gazed across the isolated countryside and spotted the dilapidated Barrogill Castle, which was set to be abandoned by its owner, Captain FB Imbert-Terry.
The Queen Mother decided to save the property and spent a number of years renovating it. She renamed her new home the Castle of Mey.
As well as the royal connection, the Dunnet Estate has more than 1,800 acres of land, six lochs and permission for ten timber lodges.
Marketing agent Auction House Scotland said: ‘Dunnet Estate offers stunning views across the Pentland Firth towards the Orkney Islands and brings a hugely exciting opportunity to create a desirable tourist destination resort by using the existing properties, stunning grounds and scenery to their fullest advantage.
‘The estate extends to more than 1,800 acres, with the focal point being the House of the Northern Gate, a ten-bedroom mansion house steeped in history.
‘Through its various owners, it has hosted an impressive visitor book, including Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1952.’
In a letter the Queen Mother wrote to her treasurer, Sir Arthur Penn, in 1952, she said the castle cost only £100 – but was initially offered to her free.
She wrote: ‘When I was staying up in Caithness I passed a dear little castle down by the sea and when I visited it I discovered it was going to be sold for nothing, just the value of the lead on the roof. This seemed so sad that I thought I would buy it and escape there occasionally when life becomes hideous.
‘The old man... was very anxious to give it to me but I resisted the kind gesture and he has now offered it to me for £100.
‘It might be rather fun to have a small house so far away – the air is lovely, and one looks at Orkney from the drawing room. The only sad thing is that part of the roof was blown off in the great gale last January and I shall have to put in electric light of course.
‘The grid runs past the door, luckily. Do you think me mad?’
More recently, the House of the Northern Gate made a guest appearance in hit Netflix show The Crown, albeit in replica.