A Borders house to come back to

A fine Melrose mansion beguiled its current owners more than once, finds Kirsty Mcluckie

Beechwood is a beautiful traditional house with a contemporary finish, set in glorious private gardens in the town of Melrose in the Borders.

Certainly the current owners liked the property so much that they bought it not once, but twice.

Katriona and Alastair Shale moved there from Edinburgh in 2000, but after moving south of the Border for their hotel business a few years later, the couple felt the pull in 2015 when Beechwood was put up for sale.

Katriona explains: “We came full circle, we loved the house when we first bought it. Our children were brought up here, but we had to relocate to the south of England.

“But we always missed it and one day I heard that Beechwood might be coming on the market. I almost didn’t dare to think it possible, but the next thing I knew we were moving back in to find, thankfully, that it hadn’t changed much at all.”

The house is a substantial

Victorian build, one of the few of this size in the area that hasn’t been subdivided. The house dates from the 1870s but the Shales extended it when they first lived here, to include a conservatory and indoor pool.

The living accommodation includes three reception rooms and a bright kitchen with breakfasting island. It is a practical family house, with a boot room, rod room and artist’s studio.

The conservatory opens onto a paved courtyard and into the indoor pool house with 14ft pool, sauna and a spa pool, changing room and showers. Alastair’s office at the end of the extension is large enough to work as a gym or games room.

A sweeping staircase from the main entrance hall leads up to the first floor where there is a billiard room, the master suite, five bedrooms and two bathrooms.

There are three double bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.

Outside, the house is enclosed by a high stone wall, mature trees and hedging, with gardens at the back and a courtyard fountain, paved terrace, kitchen garden, croquet lawn and woodland pathway.

Anna Gardiner for Savills comments: “The house is supremely comfortable, fabulously spacious and the addition of a swimming pool makes this a serious contender for those looking for an exceptional home in this part of the world.”

To add to the attraction, the house has recently had an extensive upgrade. Katriona says: “When we came back we decided that it probably needed work, so we took it back to bare bones, replastering all the walls and refurbishing the windows, replacing the carpets and worked on the driveway – not things you necessarily see but very fundamental.”

The swimming pool is a real luxury, used daily and kept at a gloriously warm 29 degrees.

Katriona says of the house: “It large enough that we can all have our separate spaces, which has been useful when the children were teenagers. They have their own snug and there is a huge top floor which can accommodate their friends.

“The conservatory is a great space and, if we were staying, we might have combined it with the kitchen because we spend most of our time in the two rooms.”

In the garden, both the beech trees and the giant redwoods are listed. Further landscaping at the front has added electric gates and created parking spaces for ten cars.

Even with their background in hotels, the Shales have never thought of turning Beechwood into a hospitality business but Katriona believes that it would function well in such a role.

She says: “We value our privacy here too much, but for someone who wanted to use it perhaps as an

upmarket BNB, like a Wolsey Lodge, it would be ideal.

“The attic space above the pool has had permission to put in dormer windows to create a granny flat or you could create extra accommodation or a staff quarter.”

Melrose is considered very safe and there is a lovely sense of community with traditional shops. From Tweedbank station less than two miles away, trains to Edinburgh run every half hour making it a real alternative to city life for commuters.

Certainly, in comparison with what is available in the Capital, the original move to Beechwood has always made sense to the Shales. Katriona explains: “If you look at the option of living in a townhouse in Edinburgh or this, I think there is no competition between the two.”

If you look at the option of living in a townhouse in Edinburgh or this, I think there is no competition between the two