Knockdown price of Lotto wife’s castle
IT was a secluded, run-down castle that a Scottish lottery winner planned to transform into the home of her dreams.
But the listed six-bedroom mansion is back on the market at a knockdown price – less than a third of the price paid for it by its multi-millionaire owner, who had intended to demolish part of the property.
Gillian Bayford, 47 – who shared a £148 million Euro Millions jackpot with her former husband, Adrian, in 2012 – looks set to lose almost half a million pounds in the deal.
She bought Chesterhill House in Fife last year for £620,000, then spent tens of thousands of
Plans for a movie room, pool and spa
pounds on detailed plans to alter the 19th Century building.
Now, however, The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that Ms Bayford has put the castle back on the market for offers over £200,000, meaning she could lose around £420,000.
The sell-off comes weeks after Ms Bayford was given the green light to carry out extensive renovations and even knock down part of the house.
The main body of the C-listed mansion, near Newport-on-Tay, was built in 1870 and has a number of distinctive architectural features, including castellated parapets and a square plan tower. The house, which has not been occupied since 2005, is laid out over three floors and an attic.
It was described as being in a state of ‘extreme disrepair’ when bought by Ms Bayford.
According to the sales brochure and council documents, planning permission and listed building consent was granted on September 5 to alter and extend the property, including restoration of the walled garden.
Ms Bayford planned to add a movie room, underground garage, pool and spa annexe.
In 2012, when living in Suffolk, Ms Bayford, a healthcare assistant on a children’s ward, and her husband Adrian, who ran a music shop, became the UK’s 516th richest couple when they hit the jackpot with a £2 Lucky Dip.
Their nine-year marriage ended 15 months later, when they split their winnings. Ms
Bayford left the £6 million Georgian mansion on a 200-acre East Anglia estate they had bought with their winnings and moved back to her native Dundee with the couple’s schoolage son and daughter.
She later began a relationship with car salesman Alan Warnock, with whom she formed A&G Properties Scotland, which built up a multi-million-pound portfolio. When the relationship ended, she briefly dated Gavin Innes, a charity worker.
The pair had been at school together and he approached her to help with a charity he was starting to help male victims of domestic abuse.
After that ended, she dated an old acquaintance, Brian Deans, a convicted fraudster whom she married on the sixth anniversary of her lottery win.