THE allure of being laird of all you survey is increasingly drawing the
moneyed and the powerful to Scotland. The best-known international buyer of
a Scottish country house is Bob Dylan, proud new owner of a £2 million
estate in the Cairngorms. Bill Clinton is said to be interested in the £3.75
million Strathearn Lodge next door to Gleneagles; Russia's second richest
man, Vladimir Lisin, paid a reported £6.8 million for Aberuchill Castle near
Crieff in 2005, and Donald Trump is building the world’s biggest golf resort
near Aberdeen.
The attraction of a baronial turreted pile, or its high-tech modern
equivalent, is also growing south of the border. Recipients of City bonuses
are learning that they can acquire a grand house in the most beautiful
countryside in Britain for less than a flat in Mayfair. I went to see some
of the homes they could make their own.
Melville House, Monimail, Fife
This huge Palladian mansion was built for the 1st Earl of Melville, William
and Mary’s Secretary of State for Scotland, in 1697. He died in 1707, the
year of the Act of Union, but the family stayed put until 1949, after which
the house became a school, then a children’s home. But by 2002, when the
present owner bought it, the Grade A listed house was semi-derelict. “About
400 pigeons were living inside,” he recalls. The restoration, supervised by
Scottish Heritage, is now complete. “We genuinely spared no expense,” the
owner says, “because we wanted to live here for ever.” Personal
circumstances have prompted a reluctant move.
The house stands in only 16½ acres of land, including two ornamental
gatehouses. The identical front and back elevations, nine bays with wings
protruding in a classic H-shape, are imposing in their symmetry and
simplicity, and all has been repainted in the original ochre.
A majestic oak-panelled entrance hall, its walls covered with ornate gold
mirrors, leads to a grand staircase. Decoration is Highland cliché: tartan
and taxidermy. The large reception rooms are dominated by original
fireplaces, over which elaborately carved wooden pediments soar to the
ceiling. Upstairs is a maze of ten bedrooms and bathrooms (there are also
six bedrooms in the guest wings and four in the gatehouses), crowned by a
full attic floor (staff quarters are in the basement). The roofed-over
stable courtyard, next to a huge cinema room, could house a pool, conference
hall or spa.
Melville House was built for grand entertaining, so it would suit those whose
job or hobby it is to do so on a lavish scale. Golf is another draw: St
Andrews is a 15-minute drive away, and the owner was once offered £70,000
for a week’s hire during the Open Championship. At a guide price of £4
million, any successful buyer would also have the satisfaction of owning one
of Scotland’s most expensive houses. Knight Frank, 0131-222 9600
Teaninich Castle, Alness, Easter Ross
Owning a castle in the Highlands has been a property fantasy since Sir Walter
Scott’s time. Teaninich Castle, 30 minutes’ drive from Inverness airport, on
the edge of the Cromarty Firth, looks the part, with its pink and gold
stone, crenellations, turrets and rose window. At £1.25 million, it is also
a bit of a bargain.
A receipt exists for its purchase by the Munro clan in 1660. It was remodelled
in the late 18th century and stayed in the family until 1923. Since then it
has been a 12-bedroom hotel with original cornices, fireplaces, cupola and
elegant entrance hall, divided by mock-Gothic columns.
The owner, a London surgeon, bought the castle six years ago but found the
role of absentee owner tricky. As a result, the decor is dated; think 1970s
Eastbourne B&B. Any buyer would have to give it a complete overhaul, and
scrap the central fire escape and catering kitchen if they wished it to be a
private home again. Teaninich stands in a tidy 18 acres, but needs clever
landscaping to shield the house from surrounding buildings. Those looking
for their very own bargain castle should be ready to lavish TLC. Bell
Ingram: 01463-717 799
Daytona, Longniddry, East Lothian
A luxury Scottish pad doesn’t have to be a draughty castle. For those looking
for something with mod-cons, a futuristic modern house, Daytona, has just
come on the market for £1.4 million in Longniddry, near Edinburgh.
East Lothian is Scotland’s Surrey-on-sea, and Daytona is on Longniddry’s
wealthiest street (one neighbour owns a football club). The design is
radical for this conservative town: a white cube with pink stone alcoves
floating on a black granite base course. Inside are white carpets, dark wood
fittings and glass walls. The owner’s eight-year-old son’s en suite bedroom
resembles a minimalist hotel suite. The master bedroom looks out over the
Firth of Forth and the garden backs onto a golf course. From the balcony
encircling the roof you can admire the Forth Rail Bridge to the west. The
owner, perhaps inevitably, envisages a City buyer “with a bonus to spend,
who’s keen on golf”. Strutt & Parker: 0131-226 2500
SCOTLAND IS HOT SO GET IN QUICK
THREE hundred years ago next Tuesday, the Act of Union joined Scotland and
England in a marriage of convenience. On Thursday, should the SNP win the
Scottish elections, as the polls predict, one side will begin divorce
proceedings. The nationalists have promised a referendum on independence in
their first term of office, and research published this week lends support
to their claims that Scotland could — in the short term at least — live
comfortably on its oil revenues without cutting public spending, and with
lower levels of borrowing than the rest of the UK.
Whatever happens on Thursday, and no-one I spoke to on a visit last week to
four Scottish cities seemed to believe that they really would throw off the
English yoke, the Scottish property market is likely to continue its stellar
growth. According to figures from the estate agent Knight Frank, the market
in Scotland has grown 61 per cent since 2003, compared with a UK-wide rate
of 51 per cent. This has been driven by a lack of supply (housing stock
increased only 1 per cent a year between 2000 and 2006) and higher
employment and wage inflation levels than the rest of Britain, particularly
in Aberdeen (see far right).
Property is still comparatively cheap: new HBOS figures put the average house
price at £138,655, 39 per cent lower than the UK average of £192,314. This
is despite an annual rate of house price inflation of 22.4 per cent, double
the British average.
Houses in Edinburgh may be the most expensive in Scotland, at an average of
£205,189, but country house prices are growing the fastest, at 16 per cent
last year, the highest rate of all British country house markets for the
fourth year running, according to the estate agent Savills.
English money has quietly been buying up choice bits of Scotland for years (I
heard almost as many English voices as local ones in Edinburgh and the
Highlands), and now the international jetset is catching on (see right).
Prices in London were three times higher than in Scotland in 2003, according
to HBOS — now it’s merely twice as expensive. As one English owner of a
grand country pile remarked to me: “Scotland is now the smartest place to
live outside Knightsbridge”.
FACTFILE
House prices in Scotland have shot up 22.4 per cent since this time last year
— but they’re still the most affordable in Britain, according to the latest
figures from the Bank of Scotland.
Edinburgh has consistently been Scotland’s best performing city (average
price: £205,189), but prices are now racing ahead in lesser-known towns such
as Galashiels and Johnstone, where annual growth is now 30 per cent.
Thirteen other towns have had price rises of more than 20 per cent in a year,
including Bathgate in West Lothian, Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Elgin
in Moray and Lochgelly in Fife, where average prices have risen by 24 per
cent to £104,738, finally passing the £100,000 mark — the last town in
Britain to do so. Houses there are still the cheapest in the UK.
