A HOME BIRD'S NEST

A converted stable block on Galloway House Estate makes an amazing family home

The stable block at Galloway House Estate is rather like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirements. Whatever this family have needed, it has provided.

Ella McCreath moved to Galloway House estate 25 years ago and the blank canvas the stable block offered was a dream come true. The 600-acre coastal estate was built and landscaped from 1740 by the Earl of Galloway, the head of the Stewart clan. It remained the family’s main residence until 1908 when the estate was sold.

‘I’m interiors mad so the potential the stable block provided was fantastic, but it was a hugely different building then,’ she says. ‘In the sitting room there was half a net curtain and a mattress on the floor. There was no decoration, no proper furniture and in some areas, you could see sky and floorboards where you shouldn’t have been able to.’

The block itself was also a vast one, almost a complete rectangle except for an access into the generous courtyard. However, when Ella moved in there were two entrances.

‘What is now the entrance hall in our house was where the carriages went through into the courtyard. The walls on either side were here but they weren’t connected to each other and as our family grew, we needed the rooms on either side to connect. I was nervous about how to do this without it looking disjointed but by fitting one large window to fill the original aperture, I think it has worked really well.’

This alteration also changed the location of the original front door and allowed Ella to reconfigure the entire layout of the main living quarters. On one side of the entrance hall, the tiny kitchen was extended to create a large dining/kitchen and WC, and on the other there’s a sitting room, games room, study and a spare bedroom.

‘The spare bedroom is at the end of the house and was previously a double height stable. We installed underfloor heating with a composite flooring on top and continued the upstairs corridor to add another bedroom. The ceiling in my daughter Kitty’s room upstairs is original so she got the former mezzanine space too.

‘These renovations have been done over a long period of time; it’s been very much a gradual process. I have four fantastic children aged from 12 to 21 and the house has just spread out as they’ve grown.’

The house has also changed its use to provide an income, allowing Ella to stay home as her brood flit in and out of the nest. ‘Seventeen years ago, we started renovating some of the cottages on the estate, one of them is part of the stable block and the holiday lets are now a thriving business.’

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Which brings us to one of Ella’s latest projects and it’s one which is again, part of this ever-evolving building. It’s not something you expect to find on a country estate in Dumfries & Galloway but on the other side of the stable block is a rather splendid and decent-sized outdoor swimming pool. With pool-side showers, loos and wicker loungers for lapping up the sun, this scenario is more European than Scottish.

Further round the courtyard, the horse stalls have latterly been used as a pop-up restaurant. ‘It’s just a nice thing to do every so often,’ says Ella. ‘The stalls perform almost like little booths and we put in tables and chairs. It’s not a money-making venture, and if we do make any money, we give it to charity. It’s great fun.’

The covered structure where the carriages would stop in the middle of the courtyard has also been repurposed. It’s turned out to be a great spot for a trampoline shelter.

However, it’s not just the fabric of the building that has offered potential. There have been lots of great finds within the walls that have found new homes in the renovations. ‘The huge table in the hall came out of one of the workshops. I had my eye on it for about

ten years before I managed to move it in here. And the pendulum is part of the stable block clock which is still outside.’

Although some projects have had to be put on hold because of the pandemic, one that has flourished is Ella’s pottery business, Ella + Grace, which she set up in yet another of the former stable buildings. ‘I have a degree in Fine Art, but during the pandemic I have got massively into ceramics. I was struggling during lockdown, and a friend told me to try my hand at pottery. She had taught herself four years ago. I spent about five mornings with her between lockdowns and then I found a beginners course in Dumfries and

I really enjoyed it.’

Now about to invest in a bigger kiln and selling her pieces throughout Scotland, Ella

+ Grace is going from strength to strength, notably being chosen to participate in the region’s renowned Spring Fling. ‘Now I wonder what took me so long to do this other than time and four children,’ she laughs.

‘However, it appears that holiday lets and ceramics work together really well.

They’re time-flexible and not office jobs, and with the ceramics I can nip out at night and turn the kiln off if I need to. After all it’s just across the courtyard. This isn’t a conventional family home but it’s an amazing one. It has allowed me to stay at home and bring up my children and enabled me to create two businesses from scratch.

There aren’t many properties that give you an opportunity to do that.’

This isn’t a conventional family home but it’s an amazing one

Above: A bone inlay table from Anthropologie takes centre stage in the elegant sitting room.

Clockwise from above: A chandelier from Jeffreys Interiors adds a bit of bling to the country-style kitchen; paintings by Dumfriesshire artist, Serena Rowe can be seen dotted around the house; Ella’s bedroom; this bone inlay chest of drawers has been repurposed as a sink unit; view from the garden into the kitchen; Ella at work in her studio.

Clockwise from top left: Otis checking out the new pool; double stable doors lead from the kitchen into the leafy garden; enjoying some time out in the greenhouse; a vintage leather gym mat makes a unique headboard in one of Ella’s son’s rooms; the pendulum in the entrance hall is part of the original stable block clock.

Clockwise from top left: Externally the stable block still maintains most of its original facade; Ella + Grace ceramics are tried and tested in Ella’s own kitchen; Ella’s grandmother’s chair takes pride of place in the entrance hall which is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue; Ella on a well earned tea break.