Wreck of the Week

Sometimes one house isn't enough. Sometimes my renovation daydreams extend to owning - say - a big, seven-bedroom country mansion with a castle in the grounds. Exhibit A: Culdees Looking over the unfortunately named Perthshire village of Muthill, Culdees Castle was built in 1810 for Charles Drummond, extended in 1867. It's fallen on harder times since - last lived in in 1968 and the photos, despite the sunshine and prettiness, show a building possibly lacking some walls as well as its windows and parts of the roof. Renovation will be a BIG job, and as you'd expect, the castle is  Grade B listed . Lovely location, gorgeous views and reasonable distance from Perth (20 miles), sort of middle of a triangle between Crieff, Auchterader and Dunblane. The agent's details stress Gleneagles six miles away and the Waitrose at Stirling and fast trains to London from Dunblane. I think we know the market they're aiming for. The nearby manse has a r...

I've been promising reader Louise a Shropshire post for ages. Possibly even eons . In the interim, Shropshire properties she and other readers have sent me have been and gone; sold or fallen by the survey wayside. And I've got distracted by the weird or more wonderful elsewhere. However, today is Shropshire (-ish) day on Wreck. First the pair of cottages above and below, being sold as one lot. The cottages each have three bedrooms, the second cottage has a shower room (no bathroom in the first cottage) and both have a kitchen room and one or two other reception rooms. I'm being generous in my description of the rooms and their possible functions there. Because both properties are in a very sorry state. The estate agent describes them as needing a "seriously robust" programme of works, and suggests the property is unlikely to be mortgagable and children are banned from the site at viewing stage. Who on earth leaves a record deck behind? So want that...

Oh crikey! I'm don't know whether I adore this house or am terrified by it! It has definite country manse potential - and definite horror film potential. The Woodlands is at Luddendenfoot , a few miles from Halifax., and it's up for auction in November. It has five bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs; hall, two reception rooms and a big dining kitchen downstairs. Plus 1.5 acres of proper woodland and garden. So far so good. The hall is impressive. Lovely panelling and sets the country house tone. But it doesn't matter how many lamps they switch on, I'm not walking through this doorway ... Sitting room too is, yes, ok. Windows are lovely (nice stained glass). Needs work, obvs, but definite potential for cosiness. But then there's the room of abandoned furniture. Anyway else seeing poltergeist-powered chairs ? This bedroom is lovely. Clearly the matriarch picked the best for herself. But which poor soul got to sleep her...

A round-up of some more unusual properties for you today - all sent to me by regular 'Wreck' readers. First the former bank, above and below, in the Welsh seaside resort of Barmouth . Squint and you can just about see the beach from the property. Sent to me by reader Tim ("Some mad part of me spends time doing property searches in North Wales. Some silly notion of a bolthole where I spent a lot of holidays as a child"). Silly? Never! You're amongst like-minded souls here, Tim. The Grade II- listed building has some gorgeous original features (loving those banking hall windows...) and comes with planning permission in place to turn it into a shop plus two-storey, three-bedroom apartment. Plus vehicle access (without it, parking would be an issue.). It also appears to come with a pretty amenable builder, presumably the same chap/chapess who won planning permission, and up for letting it, or splitting it, or doing the work, and more than happ...