Portmore has it all: A 3,459-acre Scottish estate for sale, with a signature Baronial sandstone mansion at its heart

Despite a slowdown in activity within the niche Scottish estates market due to geopolitical uncertainty, proposed UK tax changes, anxiety surrounding Scotland’s Land Reform Bill and a reduced appetite among corporate buyers for carbon-related investment, leading agents report solid interest from individual buyers in sensibly priced Scottish estates with diversified income streams.

With relatively few proper country estates for sale this year, the launch onto the market, for the first time in more than 40 years, of the historic, 3,459-acre Portmore estate, situated a mile from the conservation village of Eddleston and five miles north of Peebles in the Scottish Borders, is bound to cause a stir in the marketplace.

For selling agent Emma Chalmers of Galbraith in Perth, who invites ‘offers over £15 million’ for the estate as a whole, ‘Portmore has it all’: a Category A-listed Scottish Baronial mansion, beautiful gardens and grounds, seven estate houses, farmland, hill ground and woodland, all within easy commuting distance of Edinburgh, 18 miles away.

Rated of outstanding architectural and archaeological interest by Historic Scotland, Portmore is set within the upland valley of the Eddleston Water, a landscape dominated by the straight narrow channel of the watercourse, which flows through high-sided valleys from north to south towards the Tweed.

Distinctive features of Portmore’s higher ground are the scheduled late-prehistoric fort of Northshield Rings, with its complex ditch and rampart defences, and Portmore Loch, a large reservoir created from an existing body of water in the 1870s.

The original Portmore estate was established in the 18th century when the Earls of Portmore acquired a sizeable tract of the Blackbarony estate in about 1735. In the late 18th century, Portmore, its farms and fields, were bought by Alexander Mackenzie, whose son, Colin, a close friend of Sir Walter Scott, established the parkland and woodland there, although the house itself wasn’t built until many years after his death.

Colin Mackenzie was succeeded by his son, William Forbes Mackenzie, in 1830, and, in 1850, the imposing red-sandstone mansion was built by David Bryce in his signature Scottish Baronial style. Following a major house fire in the early 1880s, the whole interior was remodelled and a family wing added to the north in 1883. The Mackenzie family left Portmore in about 1890, whereupon the farms, house and shoot were leased out, and, in 1896, the house, grounds and wider estate were put up for sale.

Aerial photographs taken in the 1980s show that, although the essential structure of the designed landscape survived in the 20th century, the core garden fell into disrepair. However, the sale of the estate in 1979 marked a turning point in Portmore’s fortunes and, in spite of another serious fire in 1986, the trend since then has been one of repair and restoration, with the original Victorian lawns reinstated and a central pond added.

According to Historic Scotland, ‘perhaps the most impressive component of the designed landscape is the restored walled garden with its Victorian glasshouses and outbuildings, carefully designed and planted by the present owner, and now the main attraction for open days organised under the Scotland’s Gardens Scheme’.

Portmore House itself offers more than 17,200sq ft of well-proportioned accommodation on three main floors, including five ground-floor reception rooms — organ room (with original organ), drawing room, library, dining room and sitting room — together with a family-friendly kitchen and various domestic offices.

A billiard room, five bedrooms, playroom, guest annexe, wine cellars and caretaker’s flat are located on the lower ground floor, which can easily be closed off when not in use. The grand principal bedroom suite, two further bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, plus seven more bedrooms and five bathrooms are located on the first floor, with an 11th bedroom on the second floor.

The farming operation, run in hand with a farm manager, is centred on the 2,253-acre Boreland Farm to the south of Portmore House, with the focus on managing a two-flock sheep enterprise and a herd of 70 suckler cows. The farm comprises a traditional five-bedroom farmhouse, a farm manager’s house and a practical range of modern and traditional farm buildings. There are five further residential dwellings on the estate. A highly regarded pheasant shoot, which ran for many years, has recently ceased to operate following the retirement of the longterm gamekeeper.

Portmore is for sale with Galbraith for offers over £15 million. For more information, click here