Light Well Number 1

On the top floor of Balintore Castle, there are a number of light wells which in the past brought daylight to the uppermost corridor and a bathroom. Unfortunately, the skylights at the top of the light wells were a weak-spot. When I bought the castle, every single one of these had fallen through, each leaving a large hole for rain to pour through. And pour through it did: the water damage in these areas is horrific.

One of the first things we did was to cap these holes with plywood and roofing felt. No more water ingress, but no more light.

Anyhow, we have just completed fixing up the first light well. There are around 4 altogether. A reclaimed metal conservation roof window was installed, and the well itself was fixed up and re-plastered. The roof window is one of a job lot bought on eBay after years of looking: new, they would have been 10 times the price.  

Gregor was not that impressed by the amount of light newly entering the corridor, but I am hoping that when the new plasterwork is painted white and we move towards summer things will take a turn for the better. I have yet to see the refurbished light well for myself.

 

You can see a circular aperture at the bottom of the light well. This used to hold a circular window with glass in 8 frosted segments. There are marks in the surviving, almost complete, wooden frame every 45 degrees. Greg reported that the well was only rough plastered originally because, given the frosted glass, there would have been no need. My current thought is to use clear glass as the replacement for maximum light transmission and indeed to show off Greg's coloratura plasterwork.

When I visited Balthayock House nearby (a possible restoration candidate - now demolished) the light wells on the top (first) floor were egg shaped with circular openings on the roof, so you got a wonderful softly moulded sculptural lighting effect just from daylight alone. The light well as a art form.

In the photo below you can see the newly installed skylight in the roof, with new slating round the edge.

Patching up the roof is a slow business, but this step forwards was particularly welcome, given the leak in the entrance hall which has suddenly got a lot worse. With every step backwards, one needs a step forwards.

Later Ownership Timeline

I was trying to do some research on the Scottish Land Registry website yesterday. The required information is computerised nowadays but frustratingly is not directly accessible on the Web so you have to pay someone to look it up. This seems wrong somehow, against the principle of transparency of ownership, and if you want to do a lot of searching then this could cost you a pretty penny. So much for the freedom of information! Hopefully, in a civilised society like Scotland, it is just a matter of time before this is rectified.

Today I came across the registry information for Balintore Castle during some lock down tidying in my little office. I had not lost the information, as such, but let's just say it was in safe storage. :-) Given my little rant above, it was now the time to digitise the information so it would always be at my fingertips, and indeed would never have to be paid for ever again

Other ownership information had recently been provided by a friend of Balintore, so it was also time to cross-reference this to create a definitive timeline of more recent ownership, which I have appended at the end of this entry along with scans of the registry documents.

The long term mid 20th Century ownership of the castle by the Kinnordy Estate marks the division between the early owners and the later owners. Lady Langman who is frequently mentioned in this blog had use of Balintore Castle for the duration of her lifetime, so this was ownership in a practical sense, but not a titular one. I would love to find out more about the nature of this arrangement.

When the Kinnordy Estate sold the castle in 1986, it was separated from its land, and from this date onwards the building really hit bad times, moving rather swiftly between developers.

In 1989 Country Life identified the owner as a Mr. F. Godley stating that he bought it from the Lord Lyell, whereas the register indicates this is a Duncan Gordon. The names are different enough to exclude a simple error, so I am wondering if Mr. Gordon was merely the broker or agency for the sale or if he simply passed the property to Mr. Godley without any formal sale? When the property is next sold it is by Mr. Gordon.

The purchase in 1991 by SMEX LIMITED was a bit of a mystery. Who was this? Googling returned no useful results - there are many, many companies with this name.  However, in 1992, a newspaper article identified a Mr. R. Kelbie as the owner. Googling for "Kelbie" and "SMEX" identified he was the director of the now defunct company - bingo! 

Mr. Kelbie was apparently desperate to get rid of the building immediately after purchase as he took it on in error, and this explains the recently discovered  "for sale" notice of 1992. However, it actually took him a full 3 years to sell on the building to a Mr. Liu in 1994.

Mr. Liu then sold  the building to his company for a staggering £685k, and then back to himself for £60k. This latter figure is not in the register, but I believe this to be the correct amount through discussions with Angus Council.

Finally, after 13 years of Mr. Liu's effective ownership it was transferred to Angus Council via a compulsory purchase for £80k at around 11AM in the morning if memory serves. A few hours later, it was transferred to me. I did not and could not believe this had actually happened. The compulsory purchase had taken 8 years by that stage, so my brain has simple assumed that the legal work was interminable, as with the fictional "Jarndyce v Jarndyce" case of Dickens's "Bleak House", which had run for generations.

So in summary, with the exception of the mysterious and possibly entirely spurious Mr. Godley, the later ownership timeline of Balintore Castle has been nailed! :-)

Date	Event	Details
27th Apr 1943	transferred via inheritance	new owner: Baron Charles Lyell of Kinnordy
9th Jan 1986	purchased for £100	new owner: Duncan Gordon,  Bridgeton Castle, St Cyrus. Kincardine
26th Jan 1989	Country Life article	Mr. F. Godley given as owner
5th Apr 1991	purchased for £30,000	new owner: SMAX LIMITED  ( Richard Kelbie director)
25th Feb 1992	for sale notice	Aberdeen Press & Journal
12th Aug 1992	newspaper article	Mr. R. Kelbie given as owner
20th Jun 1994	purchased for £48,000	new owner: Peter Dong Guang Liu,  261 Section 1, Tun Hun South Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
17th Oct 1996	purchased for £685,000	new owner: 525308 HOLDINGS LIMITED
15th Nov 1996	purchased for £60,000	new owner: Peter Dong Guang Liu 261 Section 1, Tun Hun South Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
6th Feb 2007	purchased for £80,000	new owner: Angus Council

The Shed

Many thanks to friend of Balintore, Morag who once was a beater on the Estate, for sending me this postcard along with an original ink well from the drawing room of the castle, where served as the beaters' dormitory. Morag gifted me these items in 2008 and I have treasured them to this day.


This postcard is un-used and on photographic paper. 

This is the only image I have of this shed on the south elevation of the castle. The location has an astonishing view but the wind can whip past, so a gazebo affair is a perfect solution. I rely on the ground effect where the wind velocity close to the ground (or close to a wall) is always zero, and by pressing my back onto the stonework some relief is afforded from the aeolian gods. Wikipedia informs me these are Zephyrus (gentle west wind), Boreas (north wind), Notus (south wind), and Eurus (east wind). Some instinct tells me that Lady Langman may have set-up the shed in the 1920's or 1930's when fresh air and sunlight became enormously fashionable.

The photograph was taken early on a sunny morning (the sun is due east), with the lead canopy of the oriel window glinting in the direct light. Ivy has grown up the walls to the level of the first string course. Many blinds are in evidence to protect the interior from fading or the guests from the dangers of exposure. In the summer months, who would want to close the shutters?

Ceefax

More goodies are emerging in the lock down paperwork tidy. In 2007, at the time of the compulsory purchase of Balintore Castle a friend sent me a photo of their TV screen, with the news item featuring on BBC Scotland's CEEFAX service. I was astonished then that CEEFAX was still on the go and indeed that CRT televisions were still on the go. In 2021 this appears even more of a blast from a lost and almost forgotten past, very much like Balintore Castle itself.

CEEFAX was the BBC's teletext offering, and ORACLE was the ITV version. I can recall teletext as painfully slow, and I only really used it for TV listings and downloading programs for my BBC Micro. 

With tweets at 280 characters (originally 140) we have come full circle again in text limits to get things across! 

Wikipedia tells me that CEEFAX closed in 2012, but effectively it was heading stage left in 2007 with the start of the digital switch over and of course the Internet had long since made it redundant. It feels weird that this photo condemns the castle and myself to the teletext generation, but there is the incontestable evidence.  :-)

Lady Airlie's Horror

Lockdown paperwork tidying has unearthed an article from the Dundee Courier and Advertiser dated 19th September 2009, on the ghosts of the Angus Glens. I have scanned in the section on Balintore Castle, as part of my gradual collation of the many castle ghost stories. Here is the text of the article.

Diverting from the main road leads to Balintore, until recently dominated by the ruins of a picturesque Victorian castle. However it is not the mansion which can claim a ghost, for it is reputed that a child was murdered in one of the nearby cottages around the time of its construction.

Possibly the most terrifying aspect of a ghost is its presence, unseen, but most certainly experienced. The most vivid description of the fear it can induce was described by Mabel, Countess of Airlie, in her memoirs. There is no doubt that in her time she would have been regarded as an imperturbable femme formidable, but she lost her cool in the den below the castle along the banks of the Melgum one May evening in 1921

Walking with her dog, she was surprised to see it not only stopping suddenly but shaking with fright. Then, in turn, she felt an overwhelming sense of terror and only had a vague memory of stumbling wildly up the bank before, dishevelled, reaching the safety of the castle. Some of her other guests had the same experience, including Princess Mary, daughter of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, who apparently was so unnerved that she could not speak of her trauma for several days.

I have just managed to buy an old copy of the biography of Lady Airlie on eBay. This is entitled "Thatched with Gold", which of course betrays no sense of entitlement. I am looking forward to reading the ghost story first hand. I have my doubts about some details of the narrative as the Mulgum is a tributary of the River Isla, and as far as I know the Mulgum is not in the vicinity of the Balintore.

Anyhow, the Princess Mary referred to is the aunt of the current queen, so she is now another known Royal visitor to Balintore Castle. The Queen Mum used to stay at Balintore Castle for shooting parties in the 1950's. I managed to find a picture of both Princess Mary and the Queen Mum together. I just need to invite Charles and Anne to tea to collect the full set. :-) 

In Country Life

This time a “Balintore Castle” snapshot from 26th January 1989: a Country Life article on 12 Scottish houses at risk. The significance of an article in this prestigious magazine should not be underestimated particularly in pre-Web days. It is a definite “call to arms” for Scotland very much in the way the referenced exhibition at the V&A “The Destruction of the Country House” was for England 15 years earlier.

I had only planned to include the section on Balintore, but instead I have included details of all 12, not just to keep the article complete but to indicate the augustness of the company kept by Ms. Balintore. I will give you an update on the buildings I know about to indicate the winners and losers in the intervening 32 years. You will not be surprised that most of these are losers (6 losers vs. 2 winners). I have not included Balintore in this reckoning as I do not wish to tempt providence.

Mr. F. Godley is given as the owner of Balintore. This name is new to me, so bingo: another link in that ownership chain. I believe quite a number of the details in the history of the building are not quite correct, but these are understandable mistakes, so I will not start nit-picking. :-) After all, readers will surely have picked up the definitive version of events from this blog.

The photograph in the Country Life shows the castle still with its urns, blinds and kitchen wing finial, though of course there is no indication how long before the article the photo was taken. The front of the castle sports pheasant rearing cages.

I have appended the OCR-ed text of this article at the end of this blog entry for your convenience, though the scans are sufficiently high resolution, on clicking, to read comfortably.

The Winners

Auchinleck House

This is near where I grew up and is now in the safe and capable arms of the Landmark Trust. A friend of mine had a very happy time working there!

Ballochmyle House

The main house, once vacated, is now being used for accommodation, while the surrounding hospital has been demolished with the site being redeveloped as housing. I visited the hospital when I was small as my granny died here. :-( I looked at Ballochmyle as a restoration candidate, and don’t think my rejection was influenced by this sad connection.

The Losers

Mavisbank House

This William Adam cause célèbre famously came second in BBC2’s 2003 “Restoration” series, so missed being restored by the skin of its teeth. The Landmark Trust have recently said they would restore the house, with Historic Scotland doing the gardens, but I don’t know the current status given the pandemic so have kept this as a “loser” for now.

Poltalloch House

I have visited twice. A vast and stunning edifice by the architect of Balintore. The scale and level of dereliction do not bode well for a restoration

Dunalaister House

One of my most embarrassing visits (a tale for another time!). The quality of the stonework is next to none, but a daunting restoration.

Crawford Priory

One of my favourite buildings. I spotted three phases of gothic revival building work during my visit - every phase a gem! Still disintegrating.

Cambusnethan House

There is an active “friends of” society, but no light at the end of the tunnel.

Dalquharran Castle

Still a perfect shell of a building, and still crying out for a restoration. Technically, it is not a difficult restoration, which makes the tragedy even greater.

pp100-103 COUNTRY L I F E JANUARY 26, 1989

SCOTTISH HOUSES AT RISK

by MARCUS BIN NE Y

AUCHINLECK HOUSE, near Ayrshire (left), was built in 1759–61 for the father of Dr Johnson's friend James Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, and remained in the family until it was sold two and a half years ago to the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust. By this time it had developed extensive dry rot and was well on the way to becoming a ruin, but the trust has now spent some £200,000 on repairing and releading the roof, and will shortly begin work on the interior. The superb masonry survives in virtually perfect condition—thanks to the pure unpolluted air of the west coast.

The final use is yet to be decided. As any kind of public use would require a major endowment it is most likely that it will be offered for sale when restoration is complete in two years' time. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

MAVISBANK, Midlothian, is architecturally, one of the most delightful early Georgian houses in Britain-aptly compared to a Baroque doll's house. After years of decay, encouraged by coal-mining subsidence, emergency repairs have been carried out, and the shell stabilised (see COUNTRY LIFE, August 20, 1987). The work has been done by the Lothian Building Preservation Trust, with grants from the Secretary of State for Scotland. Detailed costings by the trust for restoring Mavisbank as one house, or three (making the wings self-contained), put the likely cost at £2 million-£2.5 million.

The house was built in 1723-27 by William Adam for Sir John Clerk. As 1989 is the tercentenary of Adam's birth, it is to be hoped that the Secretary of State for Scotland will proceed quickly with compulsory purchase. (Photograph: Jonathan M. Gibson.)

COCHNO HOUSE, Clydebank, is a very smart but simple mid-Georgian house of seven bays, with a three-bay central pediment and a handsome external staircase. It was probably designed by John Adam.

It is now owned by Glasgow University, which was refused listed building consent to demolish. The house is in partial use by the university veterinary department, and their refusal to sell may be explained by the fact that the Home Office veterinary licence is very precious to the university.

However, there is now a possibility that the department will be merged with that of Edinburgh University and the house may come onto the market. It has good original 1760s interiors, with early-19th-century alterations and embellishments. (Photograph: Glasgow Herald.)

BALLOCHMYLE HOUSE, Ayrshire, is a classic case of institutional use proving the undoing of a fine house. The original house, built by John Adam in about 1760 for Allan Whitefoord, was remodelled and absorbed in the present handsome red sandstone Jacobean mansion by Hew Montgomerie Wardrop in 1887. The entrance front has a fine, Renaissance-style, two-storey porch and bell-capped octagonal corner turrets.

It is now engulfed in a hospital which has repeatedly sought to demolish the house (which has been empty since 1968), and has turned down potential buyers because it wished to retain exclusive use of the access. No thought has been given to the future of the house as the hospital has expanded, and for this reason it must be kept wind- and water-tight until the Health Board is able to dispose of it on reasonable terms. (Photograph: Glasgow Herald.)

Fifteen years after the seminal exhibition, “The Destruction of the Country House”, few major houses remain at risk in England. In Scotland the situation is very different. There are still many derelict and decaying houses that deserve to be saved.

STRATHLEVEN HOUSE, Dunbarton, Strathclyde right), was taken on by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust at the same time as it acquired Auchinleck. This important 1690s house stands on the edge of a substantial industrial estate, which has ruled out many potential uses, but the trust believes it has a future as either a management training centre or prestige company headquarters. A funding package is now being prepared in association with the Scottish Development Agency and the Historic Buildings Council. Behind the house a 10acre site is available for associated development.

The house has extensive dry rot, but the very fine late-17th-century woodwork-notably a staircase and a large panelled room with Corinthian columns—is safely in store. The building is very much in the style of Sir William Bruce. (Photograph: Frank Melvin.)

POLTALLOCH, Argyllshire, was built in about 1850-52 for Neill Malcolm by William Burn, the most prolific of Victorian country-house architects both north and south of the Border. The style is a delicately ornate Jacobethan, comparable to Burn's Revesby Hall in Lincolnshire, and with deliciously elaborate carved stone crestings to the bay windows. The house stands in an exceptionally beautiful situation and was reputed to have been one of Burn's most expensive houses. It was unroofed some years ago and survives as a stable—but delisted—shell. This could be reconstructed internally. Poltalloch is said to have been the last house in Scotland to lose its roof under the old rating system, whereby rates were payable as long as the roof remained. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

MINTO HOUSE, Roxburghshire, following war-time requisitioning, was leased by the Elliots of Minto to a private school, but when this closed in the late 1960s no purchaser could be found. Permission to demolish was granted in 1973, but instead the lead was taken from the roof, and internal fittings removed, leaving Minto as a shell. The original house was built by William Adam for Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto, in about 1738–43; the unusual V-plan may be the result of incorporating an earlier building. The house was later remodelled for the 1st Earl of Minto by Archibald Elliot, one of the leading Edinburgh architects of the time. From 1894 to 1906 further work was carried out by Robert Lorimer, who designed some new interiors, a well-equipped service wing and a delightful terrace garden. (Photograph: Hugh Ross.)

BALDOVAN HOUSE, Angus, is a mid-18th-century house that stands three miles to the north of Dundee, close to recent development on the edge of the city, but still secluded in its own little stretch of parkland.

Dating from the mid 18th century, it has a front attributed to Sir Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum and numerous country houses, including Lowther Castle, Westmorland, and Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. It was the family home of the Scrimgeours. The house has been on the market for some time without success, but is a good candidate for conversion as flats, or possibly as a small hotel.

Vandals have done a certain amount of damage, but most of the fittings remain inside, with some good ceilings. The adjacent stables were built for Sir John Ogilvy, Bt, in 1832 by David McKenzie. (Photograph: Marcus Dean.)

DUNALASTAIR, Perthshire (right), is an impressive but forlorn house, and the latest solution suggested is that it should be sold for reconstruction in Japan, following the attempt to sell Milton Lockhart in Lanarkshire.

Set amid spectacular mountainous scenery, Dunalastair is a richly ornate example of Scottish Baronial, with magnificent views in every direction from the garden terrace. Its setting was enhanced by ornamental planting by the Jacobite poet-chieftain of the clan Donnachie, Alexander Robertson. It is sheltered from the north by Ben a Chuallaich and looks straight along Schiehallion.

The house is built of whinstone with Dunmoor freestone facings. It was formed around the core of an earlier house for General Sir John Macdonald by the Perth firm of Andrew Heiton and Son. The interiors, only fragments of which remain, were in a restrained Classical style.

The house was requisitioned during the Second World War and subsequently used as a school for Polish refugees. Latterly it has been left empty and allowed to deteriorate. It is now windowless, and will soon be a roofless shell. (Photograph: Hugh Ross.)

CAMBUSNETHAN HOUSE, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, is a Gothic revival house built in 1816-19 for Robert Lockhart by James Gillespie Graham, then Scotland's leading designer of picturesque castellated mansions. It stands in a prominent position on the north side of the Clyde, with a commanding view across the flood plain and river beyond. Unoccupied since 1983, the house has been burnt and badly vandalised, but planning permission has recently been given to a local builder to finance restoration as 12 flats, by the construction of 24 flats in two blocks below the house. Conditions are to be attached to ensure the house receives a completion certificate before the flats are begun. The stables are now in separate ownership. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

AUCHINBOTHIE, Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, is one of the biggest houses in the swish railway suburb of Kilmacolm, west of Glasgow. It dates from 1898, and was designed by William Leiper, the architect of the local church, who is better known for his houses in Helensburgh. It is built in the characteristic FrancoScottish style of the period—asymmetrical, white harled and with a circular tower.

Auchinbothie has been empty for about eight years. Plans to convert it into a country club did not proceed, and planning permission has been granted for converting the house into six flats, with further new flats in the spacious grounds. The condition of the house is now causing concern. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

CRAWFORD PRIORY, Fife, is a tragic case of an attractive house left to decay, though not yet beyond redemption. It was begun in 1758 as a modest villa by the 21st Earl of Crawford and extended in 1809 by David Hamilton for Lady Mary Lindsay Crawford. She changed her architect two years later, employing James Gillespie Graham to complete the house. In 1871 the 6th Earl of Glasgow employed William Little to remodel the east front in suitably ecclesiastical style, adding a service wing with a tall tower at the back. The interior is now derelict and more and more of the original detail-stained glass, plasterwork and panelling-disappears each year, but the house could still be rebuilt internally. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

BALINTORE CASTLE, Angus (left), is situated on a remote Angus grouse moor, and is a late and splendidly exuberant composition by William Burn, dating from the last decade of his prolific life. Towers and turrets proliferate with a balustrade viewing platform on the main tower. Inside, the Great Hall has a glazed gallery giving access to the main bedrooms. The house originally had only one bathroom, but has Burn's usual elaborate and efficiently planned offices and service quarters.

He received the commission from David Lyon, MP, who had inherited a fortune made through the East India Company.

Shortly after the house was completed in 1865, the 7,000-acre estate was taken over by Major William Lyon, who lived there until the end of the century.

The estate was subsequently acquired by Lady Lyell, but was latterly only used during the shooting season, and was finally abandoned in the 1960s following a major outbreak of dry rot. Thieves stripped the lead and stole many of the fittings, and Lord Lyell sold the castle and garden for a nominal sum to Mr F. Godley for restoration. Work has not yet begun. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

DALQUHARRAN CASTLE, Ayrshire, is a spectacular Robert Adam castle that was unroofed in 1968, and though the interiors have largely vanished, the masonry shell remains remarkably intact. Adam's house, built in 1790 for Thomas Kennedy, was enlarged by massive wings in 1881, built in matching style by Walker and Son of Belgravia. The original intention had been to rehabilitate the old castle of Dalquharran.

Suggestions have been made at various times that the house should be reduced to its original size, but it is the wings which give the composition its memorable and imposing silhouette. Now that the interior detail has sadly been lost, internal reconstruction becomes a simpler proposition. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

CALLENDER PARK, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, stands, protected by a large wire fence, in the public park to the south of Falkirk, but the district council have yet to decide on a use for it. The basic form of the house is 17th-century, incorporating earlier elements, but it was spectacularly transformed by Maitland Wardrop in the 19th century into a François Premier style château. There are some important 18th-century interiors and a marvellous library by David Hamilton. The Baroque painted ceiling above the staircase the only one of its kind in Scotland-has flaked away while the house has been empty, but generally the house is in a reasonable structural state. (Photograph: Marcus Dean.)

SKELBO CASTLE, Sutherland, is a very important group representing all stages of castle development in northern Scotland. A stone tower, probably of about 1300, stands on an earlier earthwork motte. Below is a large, two-storey hall house of the bastle type common on the Anglo-Scottish border, but without parallel so far north. This probably dates from about 1600, and was built as a defensible farmhouse, with provision for a bier in the vaulted cellars. There were two separate first-floor entrances, suggesting it was two units, perhaps for two brothers. The house was still in family use when Pennant came in the 1760s, but later became a bothy. It is now largely roofless, and the east gable has recently fallen down. (Photograph: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.)

The author would like to thank Hugh Ross, Marcus Dean and Mary Miers for their help with this article.

Mr. Kelbie's Folly

Many thanks to a friend of Balintore for sending me this newspaper article from the 12th August 1992. It gives a very clear snapshot of the situation of the castle at that time, having been purchased by a Mr. R. Kelbie sight unseen and immediately put back on the market again when Mr. Kelbie realised his folly. :-)  You can click on the scan of the article below to read the text. However, I have digitised and appended the text of the article to this blog entry as my digital legacy to the world. :-)

The name “Kelbie” is new to me, so this is another link in the chain of ownership that I am delighted to find out about.  I knew it had gone through the hands of some developers fairly rapidly, but not that rapidly!

I would put the £1m estimated restoration cost in 1992 to be an underestimate, and later restoration estimates that I have heard have been considerably higher. I love the comment in the article that Balintore Castle has too many turrets for a private owner to take on. :-)

The Zeitgeist described in the article is still with us. The days of big developers reliably and readily taking on historic buildings is no longer with us, so there is more scope for private developers. The nouveau riche lack the patience for longer restorations. So this still leaves larger buildings, such as Balintore, to fall between two stools. And it was precisely this tragedy that braced me to take on the building.

Mary Miers who supplies most of the quotes in the article is directly responsible for me first finding out about Balintore, as it features in the Scottish “Buildings at Risk” register that she founded. It is ironic that she implores in 1992 that the threat of a compulsory purchase is used to save a building in Dunbartonshire, yet it took until 2007 for Balintore to be the first enactment of this law. With the many TV makeover shows over the last 10 years, especially "Escape to the Château", restoring historic properties has never been more fashionable. However, council resources to save problematic buildings in this country have been cut way back with many now lacking a dedicated conservation officer. We are in a worse position than 1992, and I don't think the compulsory purchase of Balintore could happen today.

LIFE & TIMES WEDNESDAY AUGUST 12 1992 HOMES 7

Recession to the rescue of old houses

As developers retreat, openings present themselves for private buyers eager to restore classic country properties. Rachel Kelly surveys opportunities

Few chatelains are more careful at this time than the owners of Scotland's dilapidated country houses. These owners could once feel confident that they would be able to sell their properties to developers for a packet, and would wait patiently for the highest bidder. But that was in the Eighties. Scotland's manses and castles were snapped up by developers and house-builders for conversion to hotels, flats, and, more than anywhere else in the country, golf clubs.

Owners no longer have such a range of would-be buyers. Although a few commercial developers are still interested in buying, large developers in the past two years have been beating a retreat south, whence many of them came, or into the arms of the receivers. Ironically, the recession has opened opportunities for private restorers of Scottish country houses.

The chief expert on such opportunities is Mary Miers. Based at the Scottish Civic Trust, she runs the trust's Buildings at Risk Service. Established in January 1990 and funded by Historic Scotland, the equivalent of English Heritage, Miss Miers has set up a computer database of all historic buildings in Scotland known to be in danger because of neglect or difficulty in maintenance. Over a thousand such buildings are now on her register and they are ripe for the small-time restorer.

Miss Miers says: “There is still plenty of interest in restoring manageable country houses from private restorers, and plenty of such houses are in need of rescue. Some owners are still unresponsive to such private restorers despite the disappearance of many of the bigger developers.”

In her view, the problem with many moderate-sized country houses is not so much lack of interest from the restoring public as the intransigence of their owners. She cites Woodbank House, Balloch, on the shores of Loch Lomond in Strathclyde, as a typical example of such proprietorial procrastination. The 18th-century mansion was used as an hotel until 1981. Then it was abandoned and has been decaying for nearly a decade.

The owner is known to be unwilling to sell. “Dumbarton District Council, which says the owner has refused any contact when approached on the matter, should serve a repairs notice," Miss Miers says. “Action, not talk is urgently needed before another winter passes, and if the owner cannot afford to do anything, he must be persuaded to sell, in the interest of saving this category A listed building."

Plenty of other potential restorers have expressed interest in the building, Miss Miers says. Her hope is that the recession will mean that owners no longer expect the crazy prices commanded by such country houses during the 1980s, and will therefore be able to attract more sensitive restorers.

Owner intransigence will melt, too, in the face of the increasing activity of conservation officers scattered through Scotland's councils, which may shame them into action, as may the ever brighter glare of publicity.

A private buyer is the Scottish Civic Trust's preferred buyer for such family-sized houses. Small, manageable country houses with good communications have never been short of such buyers even when they are in a deplorable state. It is the larger stately homes that are unsuitable for most families and are at greatest risk, such as Heveningham Hall in Suffolk. On the market for £4.5 million, it is unlikely to find a private buyer with the means to maintain such an important historic mansion.

Lord Ridley of Liddesdale's thesis that the nouveaux riches would take on such houses and establish themselves as neo-squires has yet to be proved. Although Alan Bond moved into Glympton, Oxfordshire, Peter de Savary moved into Littlecote in Wiltshire, and Abdul al-Ghazzi moved into Heveningham, they all moved out quickly. Few latter-day gentry have put down permanent roots at such enormous houses. Smaller houses fare better. Balgone, near Edinburgh, had long attracted family buyers. The house had been owned by the Grant-Suttie family since 1698, but Sir Philip Grant-Suttie had moved into a farmhouse more than 20 years ago, leaving the main house empty. The building was riddled with dry rot and with collapsed ceilings and walls.

Despite interest from developers over the years, Sir Philip delayed the sale, and only thanks to the delicate negotiations of Marcus Dean, an architect and conservationist, did he finally agree to sell to the Dean family in 1989.

Alan Dean, a retired doctor, and Fidelity, his wife are now installed. "Of course, the house is too big for us," he says. “But we liked the house and its position and were prepared to take on something bigger than we needed. The rooms are not too grand."

The restoration of Balgone is a resounding success story. With £100,000 of grants from Historic Scotland and the expert touch of Marcus Dean, who with Miss Miers is co-author of Save Britain's Heritage's Scotland's Endangered Houses, part of an ugly Victorian façade has been sensitively demolished. A baronial-style Victorian wing was also demolished, restoring the house to its 17th-century form and shrinking it to a more manageable size where a developer might have once extended it.

“There are two types of owners," Miss Miers says. “Those who bury their heads in the sand and do not want anyone to touch their family home. There are others who are more interested in the pound signs than in their nation's heritage."

Some opportunist homeowners sold out in the 1980s to developers, many of whom bit off more than they could develop. Now such houses are back on the market at inflated prices. Their frustrated owners and would-be developers want to sell but cannot afford to reduce their prices without taking a big loss. Some wrongly assume that planning permissions they have secured but not implemented add a hefty premium to near wrecks that look romantic but require big expenditure on basic maintenance.

One such house is Balintore Castle, near Kirriemuir in Tayside. An exuberant Scottish baronial-style castle, the property has changed hands several times recently. The owner, Mr R. Kelbie, bought it without even inspecting the interior and put it back on the market swiftly once he realised the nature of his speculation, and for an unrealistic price in the view of the need for more than £l million of repairs. He has recently halved his asking price to £50,000.

Such a house with its double-height saloon and abundance of turrets is unlikely to appeal to the private restorer, and would need a commercial rescuer. But other houses that once might have been turned into golf courses now have a second chance to be returned to use as family homes. The picture is far from rosy, and still under threat are plenty of buildings, such as Auchenbothie House in Kilmalcolm, Inverclyde, which lacks appeal for family buyers and in which developers are no longer interested, either. But for once, the recession has a silverish lining.