Friday 4 July 2014

Two grand Scottish villas (and a Borders mansion)

I had a nice email last week from the couple that bought the manse in Muirkirk, a property I featured a couple of years ago, and are now partway through their labour of restoration love. 
Elaine added:
When I think about the rabbit hutches that masquerade as family homes at £200k and compare them to the home I now have I cannot help but smile.
Indeed.
As an antidote to recent news stories about the dark matter of property pricing that is The South, here are two more very big and very cheap Scottish alternatives to "rabbit hutches".
First,the villa above and below, in the small town of Seamill, West Kilbride.
I absolutely adore this house. It looks like it should be in the middle of the English countryside, with a vicar or two taking tea on the lawn. Instead it's on a junction of the A78 in a Scottish seaside town:


It's detached, with big, enclosed gardens either side, five bedrooms, bathroom and loo upstairs; hall, cloakroom, four reception rooms, kitchen and pantry downstairs.
There are gorgeous period details in most rooms, including stained glass windows and original fireplaces, and lovely views (ignoring the road) towards the Firth of Clyde and Ailsa Craig. Seamill itself has two very nice beaches (Seamill and Ardneil).


It's on the market through GSPC property. Have a guess at the price... go on, five-bed detached with period details, big garden and views of water....?
Offers around £219k. Details and more pix here and here.
Still in Ayrshire, the detached villa below is just outside the village of Mauchline, nine miles from Kilmarnock:

A tad smaller with four bedrooms and with a bit of an odd layout two big reception rooms downstairs but the kitchen is upstairs (in one of the ugliest kitchen/diner arrangements I've seen). That, plus the sideways gardens, the name (Haughbank House) and those steps to the right, suggest there's a hill behind it.
Anyway, the decor throughout is pretty grotty, but we live for grotty here on 'Wreck'... it gets us up in the morning and reaching for the paintbrush!


A nice, rural location and no A74 outside the door (but also no Firth view) and a decent-sized garden area and drive - and I love the entrance porch:


So, what do you reckon for this one? Four-bed detached in the country. Lovely outside, bit of a dog's breakfast inside...how much?
It's on the market through Clyde Property at offers over £165k. Details and more pix here and also here.
And finally, Wreck reader Kit sent me a link to this news story, about the listed mansion for sale at offers over £1.
Old Whitehall House, below, is at Chirnside around seven miles from Berwick-on-Tweed (with mainline trains to Edinburgh and London).

The seven-bedroom, B-listed Georgian mansion has lost its wings and is in a dangerous condition. It needs a lot of work - around £1.2million-worth - to restore it and get it off the Buildings At Risk register.
Getting that work done is a condition of the sale. So, £1 plus £1.2m - starting to sound like London prices...