An opportunity to own a lifestyle property with links to one of Scotland’s best-loved authors awaits one lucky buyer, writes Susan Welsh
It’s always fun to be able to tell visitors that your home has an interesting past. Such is the case for Kerrow House, close to the village of Cannich.
The original house dates from 1770 and was built as a hunting lodge for the Chisholm family. It was extended during the 1800s and for a time was home to one of Scotland’s most celebrated authors, Neil Gunn.
Gunn was one of the country’s most distinguished authors and his epic novel, The Silver Darlings, is considered a classic. While living at Kerrow, he wrote his last three novels: Bloodhunt, The Other Landscape and The Atom of Delight.
Making your way along the tree-lined driveway before stopping in the turning circle at the front of the house, it’s clear there’s a special atmosphere here. Sitting in around 12 acres of wooded grounds on the south side of the River Glass, the house is now run as a successful B&B and self-catering business.
The accommodation at Kerrow comprises an entrance hall, dining room, dining kitchen, garden room, master bedroom with en-suite bathroom, five bedrooms – three of which are letting bedrooms, two attic rooms a laundry and boiler room.
A self-contained wing, known as the Stalkers Wing, has an entrance hall, sitting room, dining kitchen, four bedrooms, a bathroom, shower room and utility room.
If required the house could be easily returned as a whole to a private family home and there is also scope for further development.
Along with the main house, there are two cottages and two chalets included in the asking price of offers over £950,000.
Fisherman’s Cottage has an open-plan kitchen/sitting room and double bedroom with en-suite bathroom, while Riverside Cottage has an open-plan kitchen/sitting room, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Both A-framed chalets have sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.
Within the grounds there are pony paddocks, stabling including three loose boxes with adjoining feed store and other outbuildings. The house is surrounded by mature open birch woodland, together with pine trees and meandering paths leading to the cottages and the river.
Formal gardens lie immediately to the rear and side of the house and are laid mainly to lawn interspersed with trees and shrubs. There are gravel sitting areas adjacent to the house, one with an outdoor barbecue, and a clematis and rose arched walkway leading through the lawns.
The sale also includes more than three miles of single bank trout fishing on the River Glass, which has 16 named pools with trout, weight up to one and half pounds, regularly being caught. Landing fish weighing up to seven pounds is not unusual. There’s also a stretch of single bank fishing extending from the Fasnakle Bridge to the green marker post opposite the power station.
The present owners have taken fishing rights by the week on the River Glass over successive years and have re-let these with their accommodation.
Contact Strutt and Parker on 01463 719171.