Up on the Moray coast stands Innes House, proud as punch, since 1913 the headquarters of the Tennant family — and gladly so. But in today’s world, Innes must pull its weight; too big, today, reckoned its custodian Edward Tennant for his family of four, he had a choice to make. He could have mothballed Innes, covered it over and hoped for the best — but instead he has turned it into a short-stay venue, and instructed it to sing for its supper. ‘We look at it as a business asset that needs to sweat.’
Time was when such a pursuit might have been frowned upon. Indeed, time was when houses were just closed up when, for whatever reason, not in use. It’s not that mothballing no longer happens, says Crispin Holborow, director of the private office at Savills, it’s just that it’s no longer the only option. As we are speaking, the sale is soon to complete on a major country house in England. Its new owners, says Holborow, ‘are buying the property with as much furniture as they can. Although they don’t need to, they will let it out for short stays every now and again because they’re only going to be there every so often.’
'His trio of houses seems a lot today, but pales in significance when compared to the lot of his great-great-great-grandfather the 5th Duke who had 12 principal homes'
This approach to managing big houses is on the up, he says. ‘The sort of people that I’m coming across now have moved abroad for whatever reason and don’t want to sell — they say, “it’s crazy not to use the house.”’ And so here we are, at a point where mothballing is falling out of fashion. Out have gone the dust sheets, and in have come luxury short-term rentals — where simply nothing is too much trouble. ‘If the money is right, which nowadays it is, then why would you not think about having some light touch rentals every once in a while,’ asks Holborow, perfectly reasonably.
The allure of the short-term let over the lock, stock and barrel shutting up of a country house is considerable, even for the super-rich, says Lindsay Cuthill, founder of the Blue Book Agency. ‘People do the maths and see that this three-week or month-long rental will pay the gardener and the oil bills for the next year, and frankly however rich they are, that’s a no-brainer.’ Even hustlers must hustle. ‘In the times we’re in, people look at what they’ve got and think how can they make some extra income from it,’ says Katherine Watters, partner at The Buying Solution. That extra can be very significant; one house in Sussex, she says, goes for £100,000 a week, fully staffed. ‘I know somebody took it for July, for the month — a family over for the polo season.’
Innes House has been in the hands of the Tennant family since 1913, and is now in use as a short-stay venue.
After all, if you’re away, why not capitalise on it — and have your guests do some of the crucial maintenance for you? Having people at Innes, Tennant says, is a great help. ‘Just having people in the house pushing air around it keeps the damp away and the plumbing is being used so it’s not sitting there freezing. We find out about problems early on.’ Of course, this doesn’t work for every house. ‘If you live in a crumbling wreck which is fine for you and every time the heating turns on the house vibrates because everything’s starting up then actually, you don’t have that option,’ Holborow says. ‘People want a certain level of condition.’ And they’ll pay for it, he adds. ‘Nowadays the wealthy get bored going to the same hotel [again and again]. There’s only a certain amount of places they would want to go and stay, but to go and stay in a beautiful house, which is new and interesting, that’s really exciting to them.’
It’s not all bad news for dust sheet suppliers — there remain those with more than a foot in the old world, those ‘double-handed’ country house owners with properties around the British isles, who close one up to visit another. Sir Charlie Gladstone, 8th Baronet divides his time between Glen Dye in Aberdeenshire and Hawarden Castle in Flintshire and has perfected the balance.
The key, he says, is to have ‘brilliant people to take care of everything when we are away — from dealing with alarms that go off by mistake to keeping things dust free and making them ready for my return. We have exceptional and hard-working people on both estates whose principal job is security and caretaking and they do all of the above and more when I’m away.’ He has, he adds, ‘tried to create a system where I can walk into and out of each house without any effort. It makes it all doable and it works really well.’
'He is "a nomad with some very substantial tents," as he puts it
Drumlanrig Castle is one of three properties under the care of the Duke of Buccleuch, along with Bowhill in the Borders and Boughton House in Northamptonshire.
The team is critical, of course — as not only the Gladstones know. From Alnwick Castle, the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland decamp to the Borders in the summer when it gets too busy, leaving their ancient castle in the hands of armies of robot lawnmowers and gilet-clad staff members. The duke’s cousin Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch moves between not just Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire and Bowhill in the Borders, but Boughton House in Northamptonshire too — he is ‘a nomad with some very substantial tents,’ as he puts it.
His trio of houses seems a lot today, but pales in significance when compared to the lot of his great-great-great-grandfather the 5th Duke who had 12 principal homes, aptly described by Lord Ernest Hamilton as ‘an embarrassing accumulation’. This meant a lot of moving around — and, as Lord Ernest described in his memoirs, most of these ‘were so kept up as to be ready for occupation by their owner at any moment.’ Mothballing then, even on the most extraordinary of estates, went only up to a point.
For Sir Charlie, ‘I always feel that a house is waiting for you to return from the moment you leave it.’ But there are some upsides. ‘I hate leaving both Glen Dye and Hawarden, but equally I love arriving at both — a Champagne problem with a Champagne consolation.’ And not a dust sheet in sight.