A grand seven-bedroom manor house with 11 acres, stables, 600 metres of river front and space for a grand piano
Amid the beautiful countryside of south-west Scotland, you'll find Kings Grange Manor — a house that offers a huge amount for under the £1 million mark.
Toby Keel
Everything connected to Kings Grange feels spacious. How can you not love a house with a hallway that can just swallow up two sofas without feeling cramped? Or a drawing room where a grand piano lives happily in the bay window, still leaving space for a few pot plants?
Even the gardens are gently spread out across their 11 acres. It's like the opposite of those new-builds with 'compact' rooms and tiny gardens. Those in need of space to swing cats have found their happy place, and it's for sale via Savills at offers over £995,000 — the sort of money you'd pay for a three-bed new-build in south London.
The home you're getting is a seven-bedroom in Castle Douglas, within Dumfries & Galloway and not far from Dumfries itself, which has relatively easy access north to Glasgow or south to England.
Built in 1863, this Victorian manor covers 8,990ft sq over two floors (there is also a basement), and it's in fine shape. The place might need a bit of updating here and there — a few carpets, a lick of paint — but there don't appear to be any serious issues to be addressed.
And the exciting thing is the sheer wealth of spaces on offer: it's the sort of place that, when you open up the floorplan online, all the writing is too small to read because they've had to cram so much on to your screen. We had to zoom right in to see some of the highlights: music room, library, a workshop, and both a study and an office.
There's also a sun room, a courtyard, garaging, stables... It's huge. Even the cellars are noteworthy, sprawling beneath the two sections of the house with nooks, crannies, storage spaces and a pump room. In short, everything you need for the greatest game of hide-and-seek ever played.
It's also a home that'll lend itself to multi-generational living, with a separate ground floor annexe and an upstairs living room with kitchenette in one corner that could effectively be used as a studio room.
The gardens are well known in the local area as have previously been open as part of Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, which describes Kings Grange’s gem in its blurb as: ‘An extensive garden surrounded by mature trees and shrubberies, with views to the south-west over the surrounding countryside.’
The current vendors can take the credit for this green-fingered restoration of the original Victorian garden and their planting of herbaceous mixed borders, beds and rockeries provides blasts of colour at various times of the year.
The new owners will also be able to enjoy 600m of single-bank fishing rights on the River Urr; they'll also be able to make the most of the three paddocks, two fields, a range of outbuildings — including those stables, a chicken pen, a machine store — plus a kitchen garden, an orchard, and a managed woodland. Phew.
‘Kings Grange is a unique country home that combines traditional charm, extensive grounds and a wealth of amenities perfect for those seeking privacy and heritage amid the serene beauty of rural Scotland,’ says agent Iona Conn.
Kings Grange Manor is for sale via Savills at offers over £995,000 — see more details and pictures.
