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Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Omaze winner puts £4million mansion on the market after just four months
Patricia Moule, from Southampton, won the property on the banks of Loch Rannoch, Perthshire, after it was raffled in April, but just four months later, she has put it up for sale A £4 million Highland home that was won in an Omaze draw by an 81-year-old widow has been put up for sale less than four months later. Patricia Moule, from Southampton, won the property on the banks of Loch Rannoch, Perthshire, after it was raffled in April. The widow described the house as 'breathtaking', adding: 'The scenery is spectacular, I've never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.' However, she did not reveal her plans for her new property, which comes with a private jetty and tennis court. Now, it has gone on the market with Knight Frank for offers over £3.975 million. The property comes with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, three reception rooms, a factor's cottage, a steading with garaging and workshop, a summer house, and formal gardens with an orchard and lawns. It has about 1km of frontage to Loch Rannoch, along with a stone jetty and a slipway. Knight Frank describes the property as 'an exquisite, contemporary house finished to the highest standard'. The Omaze draw was backed by Succession actor Brian Cox, as it helped to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK. Omaze president James Oakes said at the time: 'The eventual winner is free to decide what they want to do with the house. They can move in and not have to worry about any immediate costs, thanks to the £250,000 settling-in money. They can rent it out for additional income or they can sell up and cash in.' Kight Frank say of the property: 'Carie is the historic seat of Clan Robertson of Struan, whose Chiefs lived at Carie House and owned much of the land along the southern shore of Loch Rannoch. The Chief supported Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 Jacobite Rising. After the defeat at Culloden, the Prince hid nearby on Ben Alder. The Chief remained a symbol of resistance and was so respected that government commissioners avoided Carie until his death. During his funeral procession, they moved in, diverted the Carie Burn, built a sawmill, and neglected Carie House, which later burned down. 'Carie is accessed via a private tree-lined drive along the Carie Burn, leading to a gravelled approach through the Steading and hay barn. Completed in 2014, the house offers over 8,870 ft² of open-plan accommodation with spectacular views over Loch Rannoch and the Southern Rannoch Mountains. Built to an exceptional standard, the home is arranged around a cobbled courtyard and includes a conjoined two-storey stone cottage. Velfac triple glazing, underfloor gas heating, Mode LED lighting, and a Sonos sound system ensure comfort and efficiency. 'The vaulted entrance hall features engineered oak flooring, tongue and groove panelling, and full-height windows overlooking the loch. Reception rooms benefit from pocket sliding doors and dual-aspect views. The vaulted kitchen includes Bulthaup units, oak flooring, a Morso wood-burning stove, a large island, Caithness stone worktops, and premium Miele and Gaggenau appliances. A pantry offers additional fridges, freezers, oak-lined larder storage, and a butler's sink. 'The dining room, with vaulted ceiling and a 4m table seating 14, opens to a spacious drawing room with stunning loch and woodland views, a reading nook, and another wood-burning stove. A separate library/snug offers space for games, TV, or quiet relaxation. The property includes five double bedrooms -three in the main house and two guest en suites in the cottage - all with oak-lined storage and high-quality finishes. 'Bathrooms and the boot room feature Caithness stone floors, floating sinks, foot sensor lighting, Dombracht fittings, and baths with stone surrounds. The plant room houses three gas Valliant boilers, two hot water tanks, and system controls. A ladder leads to a floored attic. Additional rooms include a comms room, a laundry with twin Miele machines and dryers, and a spacious boot room with storage, Belfast sink, and guest WC. 'The house is surrounded by a gravel terrace and pergola covered in Wisteria Sinensis. The Factor's Cottage, to the south, includes open-plan living, two double bedrooms, and a mezzanine. The adjoining Steading contains a large garage, WC, and development potential. Opposite stands the hay barn with estate equipment and water filtration. A diesel backup generator sits near the entrance. 'The gardens blend formal and natural landscapes with clipped hedges, pleached Malus Everest, and over 16,000 spring bulbs. Indigenous trees, lawns, and mature woodland frame the grounds, which extend to 58.18 acres: 37.31 acres of pasture, 6.86 of gardens and buildings, 6.44 of rough grazing, and 4.83 of woodland. Amenities include a tennis court, a jetty, slipway, and over 1,000 metres of loch frontage with riparian rights for fishing.' The Omaze mansion is the latest to be put on the market by the winner. A £3 million pad in Wirral, Merseyside, with spectacular coastal views, a cinema room, and a heated outdoor swimming pool, was won by Lauren Keene in December and put up for sale for a cut price £2.5m. In January it emerged Tom Steenson, 63, put his luxury mansion with sea views in Exmouth on the market for £2.35 million. In April a couple who bagged a £3million mansion in Cornwall put the property back on the market for £4million just weeks later.. Widow June Smith also put the luxury £4.5million Cornish mansion she won in 2023 up for sale so that she could help her children and grandchildren 'with the next chapter in their lives'.
The National
03-06-2025
- Business
- The National
How Edinburgh became Scottish capital truly fit for a king
Fittingly I am concluding with our capital city, telling the story of Edinburgh in ancient times, ie before 1800, ending with the Jacobite Rising of 1745-46 and the greatest missed opportunity in Scottish history. Last week I showed how Edinburgh began to develop from a small settlement through the trinity of a fortification, religious institutions and royal patronage, as happened with all our eight cities. READ MORE: This is how the grandeur of Edinburgh began with a rock Despite the fact that much of Scotland's ancient records were stolen and destroyed by various English invaders from Edward I to Oliver Cromwell, archaeologists and historians have been able to put together a record of Edinburgh's history from the earliest times. There are gaps in our knowledge, for sure, but we do have a fairly coherent history of Edinburgh, especially as the second millennium wore on and the city became the nation's capital. Before that status was achieved, however, in the 12th and 13th centuries the castle and Holyrood Abbey were the principal drivers of the growing economic prowess of Edinburgh, but it was other foundations under the royal patronage of King David I, King William I the Lion (or Lyon), and their successors which really boosted Edinburgh. As I wrote last week, in 1143 David had given the Augustinian monks at Holyrood the right to found a burgh, the Canongate, between their church and 'my burgh', ie Edinburgh, and it is thought that he also began the long process of developing Edinburgh as a centre of mercantile trade, particularly through the establishment of 'tofts' – strips of land to either side of the High Street and Canongate allocated to merchants as long as they built a house and conducted their business in the burgh. King David is also said to have founded the parish church of Edinburgh dedicated to St Giles, but no trace of that original church remains today. The current St Giles Cathedral building was started in the 14th century. King Alexander II also favoured Edinburgh and often stayed in the castle and Holyrood Abbey. In 1230 he handed over a manor which he owned to the Dominican order, the Blackfriars. They erected a large monastery in the area south of the High Street and as with all such institutions, it added greatly to the local economy. So, too, did the monastery of the Franciscans, the Greyfriars, which was established two centuries afterwards on the site of Greyfriars Kirk. By the final years of the 13th century, Edinburgh had grown in importance, but was still not the capital, though it had been made the seat of the sheriffdom of the Lothians more than a century before. When Edward I ('Longshanks') carried out his devastating invasion of Scotland in 1296 in response to the Scots signing the Auld Alliance treaty with France, the castle was an obvious target and just days after vanquishing the Scottish army at Dunbar, his forces marched on Edinburgh and besieged the burgh and castle for five days, using mighty siege engines and 'Greek fire' – a deadly incendiary substance – to break Scottish resistance. It was the first of 26 sieges, a European record for any castle. Longshanks became the first English monarch to capture Edinburgh Castle and he promptly stole one of Scotland's greatest treasures, the Black Rood of St Margaret, from either the castle or Holyrood. Supposedly a relic of the true cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, it was ranked alongside the crown of Scotland in importance and its capture was a devastating blow to Edinburgh and Scotland. It was taken south – Longshanks is said to have kept it in his own private chapel – but was repatriated in 1328 as a consequence of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton which recognised Scottish nationhood. The Rood was captured again by the English at the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. It was then lost in Durham during the Reformation in the 16th century. Always one for documenting his misdeeds, The official English Court record stated that Edward took, 'Unum scrinium argenteum deauratum in quo reponitur crux que vocatur le blake rode', which translates as 'A silver-gilt casket in which lies the cross called the Black Rood'. The English also took other items of regalia and a huge cache of royal records which were never recovered. READ MORE: Becoming a royal burgh was a huge development in Glasgow's history As he did with several other castles, Edward installed a garrison in Edinburgh Castle. With an average garrison size of 300 soldiers, the English occupied the castle until 1313 when Robert the Bruce's great ally and general Sir Thomas Randolph captured the castle in a daring night raid. He led just 30 men up the cliffs and over the walls to take the castle from within. Today there is a plaque on the castle to record the deed. It states: 'To commemorate Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray. A distinguished soldier and diplomatist who recovered this castle in 1313 after it had been for 20 years in the hands of the English.' As I have shown previously, King Robert the Bruce always demolished recaptured castles in order to deny any future use to the English and Edinburgh Castle suffered the same fate. He did, however, make a huge contribution to Edinburgh – However, shortly before his death in 1329, he confirmed Edinburgh's status as a royal burgh and gave its leaders major trading advantages, including supervision of the port of Leith. The next English king to capture the castle was Longshanks's grandson, Edward III, who backed the attempted coup d'etat by Edward Balliol in 1334. Another English garrison was installed and Edward III paid for new castle walls, but that great warrior knight, Sir William Douglas of Liddesdale, recaptured it in 1341. The city's relationship with the garrison was shown by the fact that after Douglas disguised his men as merchants, they opened the castle to allow the Edinburgh citizenry inside, where they slaughtered the English, decapitating most of them and flinging their bodies over the walls. On his return after 11 years' imprisonment in England, King David II rebuilt the castle entirely, with David's Tower later being named after him. He died there in the royal apartments in 1371. He was succeeded by his uncle, Robert II, High Steward of Scotland and founder of the Stewart dynasty under which Edinburgh flourished and did become the capital. All this time the burghs of Edinburgh and Canongate were developing and North and South Leith also grew, with the former becoming an important port after the 1334 capture of Berwick by the English. Leith became famous for exporting wool and hides and importing Scotland's 'other national drink' of the period: claret wine from France. Edinburgh and almost all of Scotland suffered grievously when the Black Death arrived in 1349. Perhaps a third of the burgh's population died, and plague would recur on numerous occasions until the 17th century. In February 1356, the invasion of southern Scotland by Edward III of England saw much of Edinburgh razed to the ground in what became known as the Burnt Candlemas. A further invasion by the English under the teenage King Richard II in 1385 saw the town burned again. It would take many years for Edinburgh's population and economy to recover from both plague and fire, though the burgh expanded in area when the lands of Restalrig were bought from the Logan family. After the assassination of James I at Perth in 1437, the Stewart dynasty made Edinburgh Castle their principal fortress and residence. Just a year later the first meeting of the Estates of Parliament took place in the Old Tolbooth, administrative centre of the burgh. James II loved artillery and imported the giant cannon Mons Meg from the Continent – it stands in the castle to this day, despite having burst in 1681. Then James III formally decreed that Edinburgh was his capital, and during his reign the burgh's guilds, also known as crafts, began to form with the king giving them their famous banner, the Blue Blanket, in 1482. His successor James IV built Holyrood Palace as his main residence and also constructed the Great Hall at the castle that still stands much as it was. Edinburgh became a recognised European capital during his reign, which ended at Flodden Field in 1513. After that disaster, the people of Edinburgh hurriedly built the Flodden Wall in anticipation of an English invasion. READ MORE: Glasgow 850? It is one of the most ancient areas of Scotland In the meantime, the crafts and merchants were thriving – as were lawyers, the Court of Session being founded as the principal court of the land in 1532. In 1544, the forces of Henry VIII led by the Earl of Hertford burned down Holyrood Palace and Abbey and laid siege to the castle during the 'Rough Wooing' in which the English were trying to force a dynastic marriage on the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. She escaped to France, however, and married the Dauphin, the Crown Prince of France. While she was abroad, the Protestant Reformation took place. John Knox was appointed minister of St Giles in 1559, a major step towards the Reformation that was confirmed by the Scottish Parliament in 1560. After her first husband's death, Mary returned to Edinburgh in 1561 and the young Catholic queen frequently debated religious and political matters with Knox while living in the Palace of Holyroodhouse. After the murder of her secretary David Rizzio by nobles linked to her consort, Henry Darnley, the pregnant queen moved to the castle for safety Here she gave birth to her son James on June 19, 1566. Edinburgh was thus at the beginning of the Union, as James VI became James I of England in 1603, after which his royal court moved to London. While still in Edinburgh, James VI approved the town council's request to establish a university, Scotland's fourth, in 1582, and even after his move to London he still considered Edinburgh as his Scottish capital and had the palace restored for his sole visit home in 1617. Parliament House was constructed during the 1630s at a time when Edinburgh was truly prosperous, with the university leading the study of medicine which became a world-leading facet of Edinburgh. Merchants became responsible for the building of stone tenements on either side of the High Street, creating the Old Town we can still see today. Brewing, printing, and the manufacture of clothing goods were strengths of Edinburgh. The New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell occupied the town and castle following his invasion of Scotland in 1650, and again Holyrood Abbey and Palace were the objects of English ire. The Parliament barely survived Scottish anger over the Act of Union in 1701, and in common with other cities, the townspeople rioted in a vain bid to preserve Scotland's independence. After the astonishing victory of the Jacobites at Prestonpans in 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart based himself at Holyrood and 'cancelled' the Union. If only he had taken the advice to stay in Scotland and consolidate his rule here – but he didn't, a huge opportunity was missed, and the result was Culloden. Still to come was the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, even the sport of golf – it was in Edinburgh, not St Andrews, that its rules were first promulgated. That will be a story for a different time and different place, however, for today I am retiring from journalism for the foreseeable future, largely on health grounds as I will be undergoing heart surgery soon. It's the end of 10 years working for The National and Sunday National, and as Hamish MacPherson I have been given the fantastic privilege of telling the history of Scotland – a unique achievement by The National which no other Scottish newspaper can rival. If you've enjoyed my work and found it informative then I've been Martin Hannan, and if not then I've been the other fella… Saor Alba, farewell.
Scotsman
22-04-2025
- Scotsman
Town an hour from Edinburgh is named the most boring place to live in Scotland
Watch more of our videos on and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now A historic town just an hour's drive from Edinburgh has been named as one of the most boring places to live in the UK - and the most boring in Scotland. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Telegraph has produced a list of the most boring towns in the UK to live, with Alloa in Clackmannanshire named the most boring town in Scotland. The town, between Falkirk and Dunblane, is situated on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to be the River Forth and becomes the Firth of Forth. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Telegraph, which also gave reasons to love the listed towns, chose Stevenage in England as the most boring town to live in the UK, describing it as a place 'where everyone is a commuter'. Alloa was third on the list, also behind the London suburb of Surbiton. The Telegraph said Alloa 'struggles to get its character over' but added that 'the town has a certain grandeur' with its 'stately' town hall and Alloa Tower, which is the town's top tourist attraction. Alloa Tower, just 14 miles north of Falkirk, is the largest surviving keep in Scotland and the former home of the 6th Earl of Mar, leader of the 1715 Jacobite Rising. | Google Maps Sign up for our Breaking Newsletter and stay up to date on the latest news stories from Edinburgh and the Lothians. The newspaper also said of the Central Lowlands town with a population of 14,440: 'There are half a dozen listed structures. But the port's commercial legacy is truly hefty, ranging from weaving to shipbuilding, foundries, printing, cooperage and coal. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It isn't easy to throw the imagination 60 years back, but local historians have done the hard work, and to walk through Alloa, as through any former industrial town, is to walk with ghosts, memories and shadows.' It added that the wider area is 'wild and beautiful'. The article prompted one reader to comment: 'Alloa is a great place to stay if you're holidaying in central Scotland as it's equidistant to Glasgow and Edinburgh and a hop, skip and a jump from Stirling and thus much cheaper than getting accommodation in those places. But other than that I'm afraid there's not much going for it.' Britain's most boring towns (and reasons to love them): Stevenage Surbiton Alloa Runcorn Grantham Swindon Lampeter.
BBC News
03-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Community bid to buy Glenuig Inn's 'ceilidh house'
A community in the west Highlands hopes to buy a local pub whose original structure pre-dates the Jacobite Rising of the years the Glenuig Inn has become known as a traditional "ceilidh house" where trad and folk musicians gather to play of Glenuig, a small community more than 30 miles (48km) from Fort William, are trying to raise enough money through grants and crowdfunding to make an offer for the current owner is open to selling to the community. Helen Macrae is among residents involved in the proposed said: "A lot of west Highland places are not run for the community."Our owner at the moment wants to sell to us so we can buy it for the community and run it for the community."Musicians travel from the surrounding area to play at informal ceilidhs, traditional social gatherings popular in Scotland and occasions there can be as many as 30 people sessions had stopped at Glenuig Inn for a few years before the current owner restarted them five years ago. Other Scottish pubs have been bought, or are on the verge of being taken over, by Old Forge in Knoydart was taken over by the local community in 70 of the area's 130 people are shareholders and many helped to raise £1m in donations and grants to buy and refurbish the December, campaigners hoping to take over an Argyll pub received a grant of £147,411 from the Scottish Land 150-year-old Oakbank Inn - which has been shut for two years - is located on the banks of Holy Loch, a few miles north of a historic Borders pub is on the verge of moving into community ownership after securing more than £200,000 in grant award in December brought the campaign to within £30,000 of the purchase price for the Templehall Hotel in Morebattle, with a further £45,000 being sought to refurbish and manage the pub, its function suite and adjoining land.
