Midlothian, £1.8 million
Few architectural styles get the pulse racing quite like Scots Baronial and, in Borthwick Hall, I can feel my blood quickening as I type. Here we have a magnificent Grade C-listed mansion designed by John Henderson, completed in 1852, offering 10 bedrooms and 12 acres, all within 20 miles of the capital Edinburgh. Inside the 19th-century exterior, adorned as it is by bartizan towers and turrets, you will find an elegant mix of modernity and tradition: grand vaulted reception rooms with decorative plasterwork, combined with contemporary kitchen and modern bathrooms. For the eco-conscious among us, a biomass automatic-feed wood-pellet central-heating system has already been installed, along with an EV charging point in the garage. Outside, the property stands in beautifully landscaped formal gardens, which extend to open paddocks that surround the house from the north, north-east and south-east. Further amenities include a home gym, cinema room, a spa with sauna and 900mbps internet. Strutt & Parker (0131-516 3292)
Aberdeenshire, £700,000
This story is from the February 08, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 08, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024
For love, not money
This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn
A love supreme
Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different
Private views
One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that
Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course
