A Scottish country home near St Andrews that once bred championship winning sheep
Inner Gellie House has a lively history behind its elegant façades, and is looking for a new owner to take it into the 21st century.


Category A-listed Inner Gellie House is a handsome stone country house with a gate lodge, former stable block and walled garden set in 35 acres overlooking the Fife coast, 1½ miles from the fishing village of Anstruther, 10 miles from St Andrews and 49 miles from Edinburgh. Strutt and Parker have set a guide price of £1.85m for the house, once part of an estate granted in the 15th century to Archbishop James Kennedy, the founder of St Salvator’s College, University of St Andrews.
After the reformation, the estate was first rented and later bought by the Lumsdaine family, an association that was to last for almost 500 years. When William Lumsdaine, an officer in the East India Company, died unmarried in 1830, the estate passed to his sister, Mary, who had married the Revd Edwin Sandys, a scion of the Sandys family of Cumberland.
Part of the land was split off from the mansion house in 1923 and, in 1970, the Sandys-Lumsdaine family sold the house with the remaining land to Sir Donald MacLean Skiffington, a director of shipbuilders James Brown & Co, who built the first Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth at Clydebank. Sir Donald died in 1963, after which Lady Skiffington lived on at Inner Gellie until her death, aged 93, in 2004. The house was acquired by the present owner the following year.
Re-fronted in 1740 around a 15th- or 16th-century tower house, with the tower itself, cellars and stone spiral staircase — designed to enable a right-handed owner to wield his sword when advancing or retiring — atmospheric Inner Gellie House is in need of updating. More than 7,400sq ft of accommodation, over three floors, translates to three main reception rooms, a snug, kitchen, upstairs sitting room, five double bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The house retains a wealth of period features, both inside and out, including delightful plasterwork, Corinthian columns and elegant mullioned windows. The surrounding landscape and grounds are a particular highlight, not least the tree-lined drive leading to the home, from which you can see the North Sea beyond. The formal gardens extend to the east and the south of the property, while an attractive walled garden to the west includes four 'vaulted cellars and fragments of 17th century sculpted animals', another nod to the property's artistic past.
In recent years, the current owners have bred championship wining sheep at Inner Gellie, and the ground is suitable for many uses, including other livestock and equestrian entertainment.
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Additional reporting by James Fisher
Credit: Strutt and Parker
Best country houses for sale this week
An irresistible West Country cottage and a magnificent Cumbrian country house make our pick of the finest country houses for
Credit: Strutt and Parker
One of Suffolk's great country house estates — 12 bedrooms, 1,763 acres and 36,000sq ft — comes up for sale at £19 million
Glemham Hall comes to the market for the first time in 101 years, and the scale of it is quite
Credit: Knight Frank
Six superb country houses in some of England's most beautiful spots, as seen in Country Life
Homes in the Cotswolds, the West Country and Sussex are among the beautiful options as we look at some of
A historic mill conversion in Warwickshire that wouldn't look out of place on Grand Designs
The Mill, in Rowington, is a four-bedroom home that takes our industrial heritage and turns it into something astonishingly modern.
-
A woolly mammoth skeleton is among the curiosities for sale to save fire-ravaged Parnham Park
The auction of the owner James Perkins' collection, hosted by Dreweatts, tomorrow (May 13), will be used to fund renovation works at Parnham Park in Dorset.
By Lotte Brundle Published
-
The ‘utterly unique’ skincare brand that’s used in the ‘world’s best hotel’ spa
The Seed to Skin brand was the byproduct of one woman’s length fertility journey — it’s so good that today it’s used in a hotel voted the ‘world’s best’.
By Rosie Paterson Published
-
Five Cotswold dream homes on the market from £3m to £18m, as seen in Country Life
This week we have a Cotswolds-themed rundown of some of the finest homes to come to the market in this beautiful part of England.
By Toby Keel Published
-
A modern masterpiece for sale in Cornwall that's just one mile from the beach
Hay House combines location, elegance and modern family living to create a special home for the 21st century.
By James Fisher Published
-
A rollercoaster, Bauhaus department store and Brutalist football stand top the latest Buildings at Risk List
The latest Buildings at Risk List from the Twentieth Century Society has been announced. Sunwin House department store and Blackpool’s Grand National Rollercoaster both feature.
By Jack Watkins Published
-
Lutyens's last masterpiece comes up for sale in Oxfordshire, with 27 bedrooms and a cricket pitch
Middleton Park in Middleton Stoney is a vast country home that must surely be among the nation's best
By James Fisher Published
-
A 10-bedroom manor house in the heart of the Cotswolds with all the trimmings
Waterton House sits on the edge of Ampney Crucis, and is as elegant as can be.
By Penny Churchill Published
-
A seven bedroom Buckinghamshire rectory that might be a little haunted
Grade II-listed the Old Rectory is a home of astounding charm and beauty, and comes with a friendly visitor.
By James Fisher Published
-
Over the Hills and Far Away: Robert Plant's Welsh hideaway is up for sale
Other notable residents of The Argoed in the Wye Valley include George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice Webb.
By James Fisher Published
-
Period charm and contemporary tastes collide in an eight-bedroom listed home in Durham
Morton House is a rare example of a home where you can have the best of both worlds.
By James Fisher Published