A spectacular country house that has hosted poet Robert Burns and Prime Minister Winston Churchill has gone on the market for £1.825m.
Auchenbowie House in Stirling, Scotland, has passed through the hands of several of Scotland’s great families and has had some famous visitors in its time.
The lands of Auchenbowie were bought by Robert Bruce, Provost of Stirling and descendant of The Bruce, in 1555 and he commissioned the building of a substantial laird’s house, which forms the basis of the house today.
The house was later extended and remodelled in 1768 and again in the 19th century.
It passed by marriage to the Munro family in 1708 after one of the Bruce family had to flee the country when he killed a man in a duel.
The Munro family were still the owners in 1787 when Robert Burns, Scotland’s iconic poet, visited and wrote in his journal about dining with the Munro of the day.
Not much is known about Winston Churchill’s visit to Auchenbowie, other than he stayed there when visiting a niece who had married into the Munro family.
Now the three-storey property, that has a magnificent facade with a hexagonal stair tower and battlements above the front door, has gone on the market with estate agents Savills.
The nine-bed house has many period features, such as fine fireplaces and ceilings in the Adam style.
It has a library, vaulted dining room, study, wine cellar, billiards room, tennis courts and impressive equestrian facilities, which have been used by a top European dressage rider recently.
There is also a workshop, laundry room, boot room, store room, coal shed and log store around an internal courtyard.
The grounds include a three-car garage, formal lawns and tennis courts and a walled garden with indoor and outdoor riding arenas and ten loose boxes.
The rest of the land extends to 33 acres. There is 25 acres of grazing parkland divided into paddocks and the rest is small areas of woodland and rough grazing.
There is also the Auchenbowie Burn, a stream with an attractive valley and a bridge over the burn.
On the far side of the stream is Barr Wood, a softwood plantation of mainly Douglas fir trees, 64 acres of which is owned by Auchenbowie.
The property is well located within easy reach of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The internationally-renowned Gleneagles Hotel with its leisure club and golf courses is only 23 miles away and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is just to the west, which offers lots of outdoor activities including climbing, water sports, fishing and shooting.
Jamie Macnab from Savills said: ‘Auchenbowie is a fabulous place. It’s a very historic house and there’s been some form of house there dating back to during the Jacobite uprising.
‘Where Stirling was situated, that was a key area in the Middle Ages, so that’s evocative of this house’s historic past.
‘Auchenbowie is a big impressive house with some lovely rooms. The panelled library upstairs is particularly wonderful and the views from there are superb.
‘The current owners have been there for between 10 to 15 years. We sell a lot of country houses, but this is a special one.
‘It’s accessibility is a big selling point, it’s basically bang in the middle of Scotland. It’s probably half an hour to both Edinburgh and Glasgow and very quick to the motorways.
‘For someone wanting a special home but that needs to work in one of the cities, this house is a great opportunity.
‘One of Europe’s top dressage riders kept horses there so the equestrian facilities are very well set up for that.
‘And the forest is fantastic, it’s a wonderful area to walk through.’
