Live on the former hunting ground of the kings of Scotland on this magnificent 2,018-acre estate

The River Ardle valley in Highland Perthshire, once the hunting ground of the kings of Scotland, is a quietly dramatic landscape of heather hills and open moorland giving way to rolling farmland, riverside pastures and banks of native woodland. It provides a colourful seasonal backdrop to historic, 2,018-acre Balvarran estate near Enochdhu in Strathardle, now for sale for ‘offers over £5.25 million’ through the Edinburgh office of Strutt & Parker.

The property has been owned on and off from the late 18th century to the present day by the Stormonth Darling family and has been a much-loved and cared-for family home. However, it is little known even by those familiar with the local lively sporting scene, observes selling agent Robert McCulloch, who describes it as ‘a hidden gem of an estate’.

Balvarran, 12 miles north-east of Pitlochry, was the ancient home of the Barons Reid from 1554, when the Earl of Atholl granted the lands of Inverchroskie to John Reid, the 4th Baron, who built his house there and named it Balvarran, which means ‘township of the baron’.

The 7th Baron built the oldest part of the present house, which was completed in 1641. However, despite paying his dues to the Royalist Earl of Atholl, he was arbitrarily fined under punitive measures instituted by the English Parliament, which saw Balvarran set on fire by the Marquess of Montrose and his troops in 1644.

The last of the Reids to own Balvarran was the 15th Baron, Gen John Reid, during whose lifetime the estate was put into a trust, with James Stormonth of Lednathie one of several trustees. As the sole surviving trustee, Stormonth sold Balvarran in 1776 to a fellow lawyer, but retained an option to buy it back, which he did in 1781, establishing a new trust for the benefit of the Darling family in 1805. Balvarran was later sold again, before returning to Stormonth’s descendants in 1864, following its acquisition by his great-great-nephew, Moir, Lord Stormonth Darling, a former Solicitor General for Scotland.

The expansion and embellishment of the house, which is now listed Category B, followed in 1895 with the addition of a new porch and billiards room, together with kennels and stables designed by eminent Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer. Further improvements took place in the 1960s and the late 1980s, with the addition of an additional reception room and an indoor swimming pool.

Built of stone under pitched slate roofs, the house stands more than 1,000ft above sea level, overlooking lush lawns fringed by rhododendrons and azaleas with the main façade facing south-west across Strathardle.

A striking feature of the exterior is its colour, which reflects its original iron-oxide lime render, a rarity among traditional Scottish country houses. The accommodation is laid out over two main floors with attics above and includes a large kitchen/breakfast room, five good reception rooms (one the billiards room), nine bedrooms and six bathrooms, plus an office, gun room, flower room, plant/boiler room and temperature-controlled wine cellar.

Additional dwellings comprise the original coach house and six further houses and cottages. The land holding is some 55 acres of permanent pasture, 189 acres of rough grazing, 98 of woods, 1,651 of hill ground and 25 of roads and buildings. For fieldsports devotees, there is grouse- shooting on the hill ground; this is managed on a light-touch basis and allows for a few days of walked-up shooting for modest, but hard-earned bags. There is no formal shoot, although the woods and game crops offer scope to develop driven game shooting in the future.

A relatively high deer population in this part of Perthshire means that Balvarran provides unusually prolific red-deer stalking and a mile or so of salmon fishing includes several pools on the upper River Ardle — fishing can take place in appropriate spate conditions during the second half of the season.

For more information on this property visit Strutt & Parker's website.

This feature originally appeared in the August 12, 2026, print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.