Slice of mansion life
Enjoy opulence on the shores of picturesque loch, says Dean Herbert
OVER the years it has been home to Victorian merchants, Army officers and philanthropists. But now house hunters can snap up a slice of an opulent mansion on the shores of a picturesque loch.
Laggary House, once buzzing with servants and groundsmen, has been divided into four spacious homes since the 1970s.
And with an asking price of £210,000, buyers won’t have to break the bank to live in a slice of what the wealthy and powerful once enjoyed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Once a grand residence in its own right, Laggary House was built in the village of Rhu, Dunbartonshire, in 1850 as a home for the Greenock-based merchant Robert Kerr and was originally surrounded by a 24-acre estate.
Little over a decade later it was sold to Robert Farquhar Shaw Stewart, a captain in the Scots Fusilier Guards, who along with his wife and young son was waited upon by a team of 12 servants and additional groundsmen.
By the 1920s, the owner of the property was Nicol Paton Brown, the chairman of a Glasgow muslin manufacturing business who was awarded a CBE for his services to the Red Cross.
Following Mr Brown’s death in 1934, no subsequent owners were listed in local directories until the early 1940s, when it was bought by Mrs Amy Barbara Neilson, a widow, who was to remain in residence as the last owner of the whole mansion.
As well as the private apartment, prospective owners will follow in the footsteps of the property’s illustrious former owners every time they walk through the house’s communal areas, which boast a log burning fire, traditional panelled walls, stained glass windows, and an original panelled ceiling. The apartment itself still boasts many of its original stately features.
Estate agent AB Property Consultants describes the property as a ‘stunning 1850s mansion house conversion with many traditional features’, adding it has ‘attractive communal garden grounds’.
Inside, the property has two bedrooms, a lounge with a lowlevel snug and log burner and three front facing windows.
The kitchen is fitted with solid wood units and a breakfast bar with seating for two, while the master bedroom comes complete with built-in wardrobes.
In terms of location, the property sits close to Gare Loch, is close to bars and restaurants in Rhu itself and five minutes from nearby Helensburgh.
For those planning to commute, Glasgow is around an hour’s drive away – or a slightly shorter journey by train from Helensburgh Central Station.
And for lovers of the outdoors, the Rosneath peninsula is only a short distance away, the shores of Loch Long are reached in a brief drive and Arrochar and the banks of Loch Lomond are both within 25 minutes by car.
For those looking to enjoy a taste of the Victorian high life for a two bedroom semi budget, this could be the ideal property.
Offers over £210,000. Contact Alex McTurk at AB Property Consultants on 0141 773 4000 or alex@ abpropertyconsultants.co.uk.