A castle, a mansion and an island. Renovation dreams

I'm in a mood for some serious renovation porn today and I've found a Scottish castle, an English mansion and a Welsh island to show you.
Breachacha Castle (above) on the Hebridean Isle of Coll was built in 1750 for the chief of the Clan Maclean. It is brim-full of history, surrounded by gorgeous views, and sits above one of Coll's sandy beaches.

The current owners bought it in 2006 and have spent the past 10 years securing the building and working with conservationists on immediate restoration work. They're now having to sell (that's got to be a wrench, just look at this view...) and presumably hoping the buyers will continue to care for and restore this gorgeous chunk of Scottish history.
The Georgian castle is about the right size as castles go (yes, I do believe there is a 'good' castle size), which means lots of space and rooms, but so many that you need to wander the corridors with a pocket full of bread crumbs.

The sellers have been living on the two upper floors, which have been worked on to deliver six bedrooms (three en-suite), two bathrooms, a sitting room, and a kitchen, and has central heating:

The ground floor and first floor has some big, stately rooms packed with period details but largely unused, and the side wings are derelict shells but include a workshop. This is is definitely a live/work/renovate space.
On the market through Bell Ingram at offers over £450k (yes, that does say £450k..). More here and here, and have a look at the pdf brochure here.
This next house was sent to me by reader Danny who, in describing Sharpecliffe Hall, gave a pretty good outline of what my property porn picks are about: "a dream I'd love to pick up and turn around...so many possibilities, but also so much potential to become a money pit!"

Sharpecliffe is Grade II* and mostly 17th century (sorry, forget to mention Breachacha is category A listed). It's just outside the Staffordshire Moorlands village of Ipstones.
As well as the seven bedrooms, five reception rooms hall, you get a two-bedroom cottage, outbuildings, barn and around 77 acres.

On the market through Fisher German at offers over £500k, with a deadline for tenders of September 8th. More here and here. The pdf brochure here has more details.
And finally that island.
Reader John spotted this on Country Life and sent it to me. It's to lease rather than buy, but for a damn reasonable £500 a month on a 20 year lease. For that you get an island in the Dwyrd Estuary with views across to Portmerion, and a farmhouse to renovate.

Ynys Giftan (Anne's Gift) island is offered on an improving lease which means you're expected to renovate the derelict farmhouse and generally improve the profile of the place.
The house has two reception rooms, kitchen and bathroom downstairs and one bedroom and ensuite upstairs. There are also a couple of outbuilding, one stonebuilt.

The island is an un-bridged tidal island, you can walk or drive to it at low tide or sail to it at other times. There are possibilities for developing tourism or building a business from the island's 17 or so acres. The Country Life story that John emailed me explains it all pretty well.
Ynys Giftan is the market through Strutt & Parker, details here.

Three rural wrecks in Southern England

Let's talk wrecks. Tumbling-walls, greenery-clothed, rain-soaked wrecks. My three picks today are at different stages of wreckiness and definitely a step beyond your average do-up.
Starting with this former school in Suffolk. The Old School was built in 1872 and closed during the war, it's been abandoned since then.
Seventy years later, the Johnsons have had outline plans drawn up and approved to turn it into a three-bed home and it's on the market at £160k.
The Old School is in the tiny village of Redlingfield, around four miles from the market town of Eye and seven from Diss.
It's basically the school hall with its two entrances, sitting on a reasonable-size plot of land in a pretty setting. Here's how it looked in its glory days:

Here's the school today:

I do hate to see lovely buildings neglected by their owners.
On the market through Durrants with a guide price of £160k. More here and here.
Reader Ollie told me about the derelict former country mansion, below, in Essex. It's such a mess that I struggled to find an appealing picture - that, plus the £1.5m price tag will put it out of reach of probably all of you. However, it's another example of gorgeous building sinfully left to rot.
This is how Ford Place once looked:

And here's Ford Place now:

Ford Place is at North Stifford, or possible South Ockenden (it was bit unclear), on Stifford Hill. There's some fascinating background on the building here, and on here on previous attempts to redevelop the site.

Ford Place is Grade II listed (having lost its Grade I listing following a fire) and comes with around five acres, including a listed walled garden/courtyard.
On the market through Quirk Deacon, details here. Incidentally, last year it was on the market at £1.25m, and in 2010 at £750k. Seems the value is in the land Ford Place sits on, rather than the building.

My final pick - above and below - looks pretty much normal after those two wrecks. It's only really the missing floor covered by a grubby carpet that gives it away:

Derelict it may be, but it's also a nicely-shaped, detached cottage in a lovely rural setting just outside the small village of Broomsgreen, Gloucestershire.

There are three rooms and a bathroom downstairs, and upstairs three bedrooms and a large "landing room/bedroom".
Outside is a garden, carport and conservatory (which you'll want to replace).
On the market through John Goodwin at £185k. Details here and here.

Vectis Hall, Isle of Wight

This gorgeous former school was sent to me by reader Lyn, who tipped me off that this Grade II listed building at Ryde, on the lovely Isle of Wight, was finally on the market.
Vectis Hall, was built in 1812 and was originally the first free school in Ryde, according to Historic England. In the Ryde Conservation Appraisal of 2011, it was listed as "a building of considerable historic interest", albeit already empty and semi-derelict by then.

The building had been used in the past for dances and events but various local bids to stop the hall's owners' from leaving it to rot had floundered, despite the actions of local pressure groups and compulsory repairs notices from the council. The last attempt to get the owners to repair the hall was made a couple of months before it was put on the market.
It's a sad story I hear time and again from my readers, of wonderful, historic buildings in their area neglected by private owners and mishandled by local development bodies, often until they reach the stage where they argue demolition is the only option.
The example that always gets me is the Lord Line building in my home city. I've spent thirty years driving past that art deco symbol of Hull's fishing and merchant navy past, dreaming of being able to buy it and bring it back to life.

Anyway, back to Vectis Hall. The mostly single-storey building was first listed in 1972.

There are five rooms, including the double-height Main Hall, and a "bedroom" on the first floor. I particularly love the graffiti on the far wall in this photo:

The Ryde estate agent was clearly taken with his or her visit to the building. I don't think I've ever read a description like this:

When you open the first set of doors you are met by by two further doors that tower way above your heard [sic] and simply ooze originality & character. These doors open to a mystical world of history and stories dating back through the centuries.

My guess is this is a building that estate agent also loves and has probably spent a lot of years hoping to play their own part in resurrecting Vectis Hall by finding a sympathetic buyer. I really hope they manage to find a renovator rather than a demolisher.
On the market through Pittis with a guide price of £150k. You'll need to be quick - best and final offers by Tuesday July 18th. Details here.