The dream of living in a spectacular castle on a Scottish estate has a huge draw for many of us — not for nothing is our round-up of spectacular scottish castles and estates for sale one of the most-clicked pages on the Country Life website.
The appeal isn't hard to understand: grand properties which look like they've escaped from the pages of a Walter Scott novel, looking across craggy mountains and the liquorice-dark waters of romantic lochs, with endless space to roam. Magnificent.
The Bunloit Estate is a prime example of all the above, currently for sale via Strutt & Parker for offers over £2.4m – that price is for the entire 1,264 acres, but you'll save £650,000 or so if you don't want the 300-acres of that which are commercial woodland.
The property consists of a principal house overlooking the splendour of Loch Ness, two traditional self-contained holiday cottages, farm land, sporting rights and some highly attractive native woodland and moorland.
The main house is a three bedroom former schoolhouse built in 1876 and which remained a working school (with an excellent reputation) until 1956. There are unusual touches: one or two of the school features remain — bells and pegs and so on — while the layout has the main sitting room upstairs and the enormous master bedroom downstairs. It makes total sense: this way the house's largest and grandest room enjoys the best of the views.
There's also a large kitchen-diner, a home office, boot room and long dining room, among other features.
The relatively modest size of both house and estate make this a very manageable prospect, and the holiday cottages could form the basis of a fine little business — especially given the transport links at Inverness, an easy drive along the north side of the loch.
What could make that business even more successful is the castellated Tower House, built in 2006 by the present owners. Rather wonderfully they created it principally to act as a library to house their extensive collection of books, as well as offering a study and providing a 360-degree view entertaining space at the top.
While it'd be wonderful to keep as a facility for the new owners of the main house, it'd also make a spectacular holiday let (subject to permissions and so on) that would surely command a big premium on Air BnB.
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
-
Graham Norton's elegant East London home hits the market, and it's just as wonderful as you would expectThe four-bedroom home in Wapping should be studied for how well it uses two separate spaces to create a home of immense character and utility.
-
Sign of the times: In the age of the selfie, what’s happening to the humble autograph?When Ringo Starr announced that he was no longer going to sign anything, he kickstarted a celebrity movement that coincided with the advent of the camera phone and selfie. Rob Crossan asks whether, in today’s world, the selfie holds more clout than an autograph?
-
Graham Norton's elegant East London home hits the market, and it's just as wonderful as you would expect
The four-bedroom home in Wapping should be studied for how well it uses two separate spaces to create a home of immense character and utility.
-
About time: The fastest and slowest moving housing markets revealedNew research by Zoopla has shown where it's easy to sell and where it will take quite a while to find a buyer.
-
A wisteria clad hall built by one of the founders of the Bank of EnglandCome for the history of Old Hall. Stay for the interesting interiors.
-
A gorgeous Scottish cottage with contemporary interiors on the bonny banks of the River TayCarnliath on the edge of Strathtay is a delightful family home set in sensational scenery.
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country LifeWe take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
-
380 acres and 90 bedrooms on the £25m private island being sold by one of Britain's top music producersStormzy, Rihanna and the Rolling Stones are just a part of the story at Osea Island, a dot on the map in the seas off Essex.
-
A home cinema, tasteful interiors and 65 acres of private parkland hidden in an unassuming lodge in KentNorth Lodge near Tonbridge may seem relatively simple, but there is a lot more than what meets the eye.
-
A rare opportunity to own a family home on Vanbrugh Terrace, one of London's finest streetsThis six-bedroom Victorian home sits right on the start line of the London Marathon, with easy access to Blackheath and Greenwich Park.
