A meticulously restored Scottish estate for sale, dripping with history, character and wildlife

In 2009, Mark Gibson, the owner of the glorious, 2,850-acre Craigengillan estate — which lies in a wooded fold of the hills above the fabled River Doon, two miles from the former mining town of Dalmellington and 16 miles from Ayr — was voted Country Life’s Countryman of the Year, in recognition of his remarkable revival of this historic Ayrshire estate.

A year later, the magazine’s then Architectural Writer Mary Miers traced the remarkable story of Craigengillan and its principal house, which had stood untouched and almost derelict for the best part of a century when, in 1999, Mr Gibson bought the estate previously owned by the McAdam family for almost 400 years. Having finally decided to retire, Mr Gibson is proud to pass on a thriving and viable estate, which is now on the market through Knight Frank in Edinburgh at a guide price of £5 million for the whole.

Craigengillan is situated at the northern end of the Galloway Forest on the upper reaches of the Doon, which surges through a spectacular gorge to flow for several miles through parkland, encircled by hills on three sides. In 1611, Craigengillan was granted to a yeoman branch of the McAdam family. The earliest part of the present house was remodelled in the 1770s, when it was home to John McAdam, a brilliant engineer and innovator, who, with his cousin, John Loudun McAdam, pioneered macadam — a forerunner to tarmac — and became successful road and bridge builders.

McAdam died in 1790, leaving Craigengillan to his son Quintin. Surviving letters date Quintin’s five-bay addition to the house, which involved the removal of the existing stables. His handsome new stable court, built in 1802, is a Classical square entered through a tall archway surmounted by a clock tower with Venetian windows and an octagonal cupola. In May 1803, he was preoccupied with works to level the forecourt at the end of a new two-mile drive ‘up to my house alongst the river side’, for which he built a handsome stone bridge and Gothick ‘porters lodge’ in 1804.

In 1820, Quintin’s daughter, Jean, inherited Craigengillan and, in 1827, married the Hon Frederick Cathcart. They turned the house into a more fashionable gentleman’s residence, adding a pair of projecting bays linked by a glazed passage on the entrance front, with lower wings enclosing the forecourt on either side.

They also laid out the formal gardens and built a walled kitchen garden, bridges and a remarkable ice-house complex. Jean McAdam Cathcart died childless in 1878 and Craigengillan passed to her kinsman Alexander Frederick McAdam, a notable sportsman and horse breeder, who married Charlotte Coleman in 1886, but died, aged 36, in 1901.

Soon afterwards, Charlotte engaged the internationally renowned design firm, Maison Jansen of Paris, to carry out a total refit of Craigengillan House. The result could be taken for a fashionable townhouse in the French capital, its showpiece the elegant stair hall with its sensuously curving staircase.

Highlights include the saloon, the intimate library and the panelled morning room decorated with silk damask hangings, carved and gilded woodwork and over-door paintings of hunting scenes. In 1945, Charlotte married Dr Alfred Bulkeley Gavin, the son of the general manager of Dalmellington Iron Company. Following her death, at the age of 98 in 1952, he transferred Craigengillan to a family company, from which Mr Gibson acquired it almost half a century later.

During his 25-year tenure, the house and stable court, both listed Category A, have been completely restored, estate cottages repaired, the farm resuscitated and public access reintroduced. Mr Gibson’s chief passion, however, has been the landscape, where his tireless efforts at restoring, reclaiming, replanting and rebuilding have created a model of environmental management.

Tom Stewart-Moore, who is handling the sale, points to an impressive array of estate assets assembled by its dedicated owner. These include the restored seven-bedroom main house with its self-contained, three-bedroom wing; the restored gatehouse, farmhouse and steading, two holiday cottages and two further period houses.

The sale also includes the splendid stable block, now the setting for a successful livery business run in partnership between the vendor and the stable manager; an organic farming enterprise with an in-hand sheep flock; 700 acres of young and older native woodland; plus extensive wildlife habitats, 2½ miles of trout and salmon fishing on the Doon, and Dark Sky Park status within the UNESCO Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Reserve — the whole set within an 18th-century designed landscape.

The Craigengillan Estate is for sale with Knight Frank for £5 million. For more information and pictures, click here.