THE LIVING IS EASY

THEY HAD ENOUGH SPACE TO BUILD A MANSION, BUT THE OWNERS OF THIS HOUSE AIMED FOR QUALITY OVER QUANTITY – WITHOUT STINTING ON LUXURY

- Caroline Ednie

Back in 2007, a historic Stirlingshire estate of several hundred acres was put up for sale. It came with a house – not a grand Scots Baronial pile, such as you might have expected to find at such a stunning location, but a modest four-bedroom house built in the 1970s.

The new owners, William and Jayne, bought with the intention of demolishing it and replacing it with a house that would be a modern, comfortable family home, with a presence and stature more befitting of its surroundings.

The estate is no stranger to ostentatious mansions. A 60-bedroom manor house had been built here in 1890, but it was demolished in the 1960s. The new owners had no ambitions to emulate this kind of grandeur, though, preferring instead to build on a far more sustainable scale.

“We did have planning consent to build something larger,” says William, who has worked in the construction industry for more than 30 years. “But as our children grew up and began to leave home, we decided to go for a smaller house. We felt it was important that every room had a purpose. Why have eight or nine bedrooms if you’re not going to use them?”

Alastair MacIntyre of Glasgow architects McInnes Gardner worked with the couple to help them realise​ their vision for a contemporary home with a traditional appearance. The design that finally emerged was a modern mansion with a nod to the past. “It’s no pastiche, though,” insists MacIntyre. “It recalls the Scottish grand houses of the past in the Baronial style that is itself an evolution of the defensible castle and French Romantic tradition.