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Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 2 Mark Riley Design - 07747 037222 BLAIRQUHAN ESTATE AYRSHIRE SCOTLAND Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 3 One Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 4 BLAIRQUHAN ESTATE AYRSHIRE SCOTLAND Ayr 14 miles Prestwick Airport 18 miles Glasgow 50 miles Edinburgh 95 miles (All mileages are approximate) SPECTACULAR ‘A’ LISTED CASTLE IN DESIGNED LANDSCAPE BLAIRQUHAN CASTLE WITH 5 RECEPTION ROOMS, 16 BEDROOMS AND 12 BATHROOMS WALLED GARDEN, PINETUM GARDEN POND WITH WILD BROWN TROUT 12 ESTATE COTTAGES (2 - 4 BEDROOMS) ABOUT 300 ACRES PARKLAND GRAZING INCLUDING SILAGE GROUND ABOUT 300 ACRES MIXED WOODLAND PURDEY AWARD WINNING LOW GROUND DRIVEN SHOOT ROE STALKING OVER 3.5 MILES DOUBLE AND SINGLE BANK SALMON FISHING AVERAGING 120 SALMON CELEBRATED WEDDING VENUE AND HOLIDAY COTTAGE BUSINESS ABOUT 270 HECTARES (670 ACRES) FOR SALE AS A WHOLE Two Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 5 Situation Blairquhan Estate lies in the Girvan Valley, a day school for girls and boys between the ages quiet and unspoilt part of Ayrshire, only a short of 3 and 18 years; in 2008 Wellington had the distance from the coast and 18 miles from best Higher exam results in Scotland. Prestwick Airport. The village of Straiton lies The Ayrshire coast is famous worldwide for just beyond the estate boundary to the golf, with championship courses at Royal southeast, and is a pretty and peaceful village Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry, all of which dating back to 1760. Sir Edward Hunter Blair, have hosted the Open Championship. There are then Laird of Blairquhan Castle, remodelled also golf courses at Ayr, Dailly and Girvan, the village around 1900, focused on buildings with a nine hole course at Maybole (7 miles). of interest from its earlier days including the Ayr Racecourse has regular race meetings and Black Bull Inn (1766), Traboyack (1795) and hosts the Scottish Grand National in April and St Cuthbert's Church of 1758, restored in 1901, the Ayr Gold Cup in September. There is with a pre-Reformation chapel. excellent sailing on the Firth of Clyde, with Ayr, 14 miles to the north, provides a wide yachting marinas at Troon and further up the range of shops, supermarkets and professional coast at Largs and Inverkip. services. The city of Glasgow can be accessed Prestwick Airport has services to London easily by both rail and road, and is now widely Stansted and many European destinations. regarded as one of Europe’s most fashion Glasgow Airport (50 miles) and Edinburgh conscious cities, with one of the UK’s best Airport provide a wide range of domestic, shopping districts. Edinburgh, Scotland’s European and international flights. Ayr has a famous capital city, lies just over 95 miles to mainline railway station with direct services the northeast. to Glasgow and connecting services to Straiton village has a primary school, and London. There is also a station at Maybole Wellington School in Ayr is an independent (7 miles). Three BLAIRQUHAN ESTATE Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 6 NOTE: This plan is based upon the Ordnance Survey Map with the sanction of the Controller of H. M. Stationery Office. Crown Copyright reserved. This Plan is published for convenience of Purchasers only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed and is expressly excluded from any contract. © Crown Copyright 759198. NOT TO SCALE Four Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 7 Historical Notes In June 1782, Sir John Whitefoord of subsequently Sir William Forbes, James Hunter Ballochmyle and Blairquhan fell victim to the & Co, one of the few banks to survive the crash History records Blairquhan as having been in spectacular series of bank failures that included of 1782. In 1770 he married Jean Blair, the the ownership of only four families since the the Ayr bank of Douglas, Heron & Co, daughter and heiress of John Blair of Dunskey in 14th century – the McWhirters (or memorably described as ‘one of the most Wigtownshire. When she inherited Dunskey in McWhurters), the Kennedys, the Whitefoords precarious companies ever floated’. Sir John, who 1777, Blair was added to the family name. James and the Hunter Blairs. The old castle of had invested substantially in the bank, incurred Hunter was elected MP for Edinburgh in 1783, Blairquhan was built around a tower house significant losses but managed to retain both his became Lord Provost of the city in 1784, and was erected in 1346 for the McWhirters. The Ayrshire estates until 1798, when he was forced created a Baronet in 1786. Only a year later, aged Kennedys acquired the estate by marriage in to sell Blairquhan. 45, he was dead, leaving 12 surviving children. the 15th century. John Kennedy, who, with his wife Anne Keith, is recorded on a date stone of It came into the 1573 as Laird of Blairquhan, added a new front ownership of the Sir James Hunter Blair and family by David Allan c.1783 in 1576. Hunter Blair family in 1798, when it was In the 1620s, in a legal wrangle, John purchased for David Kennedy’s heirs lost possession of Blairquhan Hunter Blair, then aged to the Whitefoords of Ballochmyle. However, 20, by his trustees. the Kennedys managed to remain in residence James Hunter, father of until well into the middle of the 17th century, David Hunter Blair, but eventually conceded defeat. Having finally was a member of a gained vacant possession of Blairquhan, Sir landed family in John Whitefoord rented it to the McAdams of Ayrshire. He was a Lagwyne parents of the famous road improver. successful Edinburgh John Loudon McAdam, inventor of based banker, who tarmacadam, was brought up at Blairquhan and started his career with Painting is excluded from the sale went to school in nearby Maybole. Coutts & Co, General Estate Description Blairquhan Castle lies at the heart of the estate, overlooking the Water of Girvan which flows for over 3½ miles along the northern boundary of the estate. It is rare to find an estate which affords such privacy. About 670 acres in all, the estate also has 12 further estate properties, a walled garden with glasshouse, ice house, outstanding woodlands, farmland, a Purdey Award winning low ground shoot, roe stalking, trout fishing, and salmon and sea trout fishing. Lord Cockburn, writing as he worked his way around the South Circuit of the Scottish Bench in September 1844, wrote about his stay at Blairquhan: “I rose early…and surveyed the beauties of Blairquhan. It deserves its usual praises. A most gentleman-like place rich in all sorts of attractions – of wood, lawn, river, gardens, hill, agriculture and pasture.” Five BLAIRQUHAN ESTATE Blairquhan Castle:Blairquhan Estate 5110110 15:30 Page 8 Robert Burns, who had been promoted by Sir new laird concentrated on consolidating his which envisaged the demolition of the castle and James in Edinburgh, was much grieved and wrote financial position, before embarking on any major the erection of a new mansion on the site. Again, an ‘Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair’. redevelopment. He housed his estate workers in nothing happened. Although no great lover of the gentry, Burns said the old castle and put a smaller house in order for The present day castle was built by William Burn of Sir James: “If ever a child of his be so himself. His older brother, John, died in 1800 and in 1820-24; it was one of his early commissions. unfortunate as to be under the necessity of asking at the age of just 22, Sir David Hunter Blair found In May 1820, Lady Hunter Blair died, an event anything of so poor a man as I am, it may not be himself nominal head of the family. which seems to have spurred Sir David into in my power to grant it, but by God I shall try.” action. By September of the same year, William Although fatherless, the children were well Architectural Notes Burn had produced satisfactory plans, the provided for and had relatives and friends in high In 1803 Sir David commissioned what would be contract of works was signed on March 29th places. Sir James’s elder brother, Colonel William the first of three potential schemes for the 1821, and work finally began on a site beside the Hunter of Brownhill, made David, the second son, improvement of Blairquhan. Thomas White, a old castle, which had first to be demolished – no his heir. In August 1798, when young David was landscape architect, proposed a new Classical small undertaking. Much of the 16th century on tour in Germany, Hugh Hamilton, one of his house across the river from the old castle and the decorative sculpted stonework was removed for trustees, wrote to him: “You are this day excavation of a large lake from the River Girvan. incorporation into the new Kitchen Court, which proprietor of the first of three lots of Sir John The expensive plans came to nothing. Ten years was built, floored and roofed by the end of July. Whitefoord’s Estate, which includes the Mansion later, after Sir David’s marriage to Dorothea Hay The foundation stone of the new Blairquhan was House, old trees, etc. This transaction gives me McKenzie, a niece of the Marquess of Tweeddale, laid on August 31st by Sir Alexander Boswell of infinite pleasure, as I know you wished it and I with the need for a grand home becoming more Auchinleck. was most anxious to have you fixed in this part of pressing, he invited James Gillespie Graham to Once work had finally begun, it moved on the country.