Mull estate on sale with £5m price tag
There was been a “huge amount of interest” in a derelict country house on Mull that has a £5 million price tag.
The dilapidated Pennyghael House, at the heart of Pennyghael estate, has not been lived in for more than 30 years, but with 8,710 acres and almost nine miles of rugged coastline and cliffs, it is not short of potential buyers.
A closing date is expected within a fortnight.
Potential buyers are queuing up to view an island estate with a derelict country house and a £5 million plus price tag.
The dilapidated Pennyghael House, at the heart of Pennyghael estate on Mull, has not been lived in for more than 30 years and needs total renovation.
However, the land assets of the 8,710 acre estate on the idyllic Ross of Mull is attracting interest from home and abroad.
The estate has almost nine miles of rugged coastline and cliffs.
Its owner , the Dutch company Epsilon, bought the estate, with frontage to Loch Scridain in the north and the Firth of Lorne to the s outh, from rock band Genesis in 1997.
And while Epsilon has failed to invest in the big house, the company has ploughed resources into the hunting, shooting and fishing side of Pennyghael.
Sophie Handley, of the Estates Office, in Oban, which is handling the sale alongside Knight Frank, said: "There has been a huge amount of interest, for a variety of reasons.
“Some people just want a traditional estate for stalking and shooting and then there is the environmental interest, interest in the forestry and in peat restoration, to improve the quality of the peat, peat bogs absorb and store carbon.
"Rewilding is also popular at the moment, so the estate spans all areas, from the traditional idea of someone wanting to have their own sporting estate, to someone wanting it for environmental reasons.”
Although the estate only went on the market last week, Miss Hanley said it was likely that a closing date would be set in a fortnight.
She said: "It's looking like we are going to go to a closing date in a couple of weeks as we already have four very keen people.
"One is from Belgium, two are from England and another is from Scotland.”
On the traditional big house, which would need a lot of money to bring it back to its
former glory, Miss Handley said: "Pennyghael Lodge has got such potential, it is listed and there is potential there to have a grand house."
A buyer would have five other estate houses they could choose to stay in, while a potential site has been earmarked, subject to planning permission, for anyone wishcession
ing to build a new home to their own style.
The main house, which started life as a farmhouse, with extensions, including two wings, built on to it over the years, stands in secluded woodland, while the rest of the estate encompasses mile after mile of stunning scenery.
Miss Handley said: "It is
beautiful. There is the gentler side, which is around Pennyghael village and down towards Iona, and there is the dramatic side, the Carsaig cliffs are part of it, there are fishing lochs near there and wild goats."
Over the centuries the land that makes up Pennyghael Estate has come under a sucof owners, including the Duke of Argyll in the 1700s.
The sales brochure states: "There is evidence of the communities living on the isle of Mull from 400BC. By 600BC the land had been worked by farmers around the shores of Loch Scridain.”