A private track turns off the road just past Logierait and leads uphill to Eastertyre House.
The Tay glistens as it snakes its away along the valley below. Above us is farmland and the woods, leading into the depths of Tay Forest Park.
It is no wonder Eastertyre Estate has been inundated with viewers since it went on the market a few days ago. A closing date has been set for Wednesday May 19, with the estate expected to go for far in excess of its £1.6 million asking price.
The successful bidder will need to have plenty of money left in their bank account once the sale is completed. The main house and one of the cottages have been empty for a number of years and need comprehensively overhauled.
The estate was owned by three generations of the Crabbie family – known for the company John Crabbie & Co, with its ginger wine and blended whiskies.
The estate retained a whisky connection, passing into the hands of John Macphail. One of the most influential figures in the Scotch whisky industry, Mr Macphail founded the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre in Edinburgh and was chairman of Highland Distilleries and of Robertson & Baxter – better known today as the Edrington Group, makers of the Famous Grouse and the Macallan.
Mr Macphail passed away in 2004 aged 80 and his wife Edith remained at Eastertyre until her death in 2011. The estate then passed to the couple’s son Michael, who died suddenly three years ago.
Since then the house and one of the two cottage has lain empty, with the second cottage dwelt in by the estate’s gardener.
The oldest section of the enormous main house dates back 500 years, with numerous extensions and other additions being built over the centuries between then and now.
The main house has suffered due to its extended period of inoccupancy and viewers are not allowed inside due to health and safety reasons. After managing to pull a few strings I’m granted access for a careful tour.
It’s a beautiful mess inside. Paint and paper peel. Carpet moulders. Toilets, showers and bathtubs are thick with grime. And, worst of all, the fungal spores of dry rot leap and bloom in corners and crannies all over the house.
This is not a job for a lone DIY enthusiast. Whoever takes this on will need experience restoring old buildings and a team of skilled tradespeople to deploy.
Yet there is grandeur, perhaps even splendour, beneath the grim decay. Beautiful cornices remain unblemished. Vaulted ceilings leap overhead. Cast iron fireplaces and decorative surrounds look ready to have the hearth set and leap back into life at the touch of a match.
The living room and dining room have fantastic views across the Tay valley from their bay windows. And from the upstairs bedrooms the vista is even more majestic.
The two-storey former stable block forms one wing of the house and is laid out in such a way that it would be easy to create a self contained annex home inside.
With nine bedrooms – and the opportunity to create a couple more – eight bathrooms or WCs and numerous reception rooms it’s an enormous house. It isn’t difficult to envision it as a boutique hotel, with its easy-to-get-to location and direct access to the Perthshire hills would make it a hit with holiday makers.
A series of outbuildings could potentially be turned into self-contained holiday lets or staff accommodation.
From Eastertyre House a track leads through a patch of woodland to Eastertyre Cottage. This handsome stone and slate house dates from the late 1800s. In the 1970s it was enlarged to incorporate the adjacent barn.
It too is in dire need of TLC, with mould spores spread liberally over walls and ceilings, though its more modest size means it is a more manageable project than the main house.
Eastertyre Cottage has five bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom. The barn is an impressive L-shaped family room with a vaulted ceiling and feature exposed stone walls. A sunroom has been added to it at some point.
The house comes with a very large garden and its own area of woodland. A track runs down the side of the garden and joins the main lane up to Eastertyre House. With woodland sheltering it on both sides and its own branch access lane, Eastertyre Cottage feels quite separate and private from the rest of the estate.
Behind and to the side of the main house is Tombane Cottage. It is the only one of the estate’s three homes that is habitable, though it could do with a bit of modernisation.
The cottage has three bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, kitchen, sunroom, porch and storage room.
It has a garden to the front. To the rear s a courtyard and two stone steading buildings, one with stabling and a hayloft, and a timber tractor shed.
Eastertyre Estate extends to almost 275 acres, a mixture of grazing and woodland. The estate includes Logierait Mires, a Site of Special Scientific Interest known as a breeding ground for the northern blue damselfly.
The estate also comes with salmon fishing rights along a quarter mile stretch of the River Tay.
The estate is being offered as a whole or in five lots – Eastertyre House with 8.4 acres; Eastertyre Cottage with 5.7 acres; Tombane Cottage with 1.7 acres; 257 acres of hill, woodland and grazing; and salmon fishing rights along a quarter mile of the Tay.
During my visit on a wet Monday afternoon a steady procession of cars were coming and going along the estate’s entrance road. Highland estates in such an accessible location only come to market occasionally and there has been a slew of interest in Eastertyre.
Selling agents Bell Ingram have set a closing date of Wednesday for offers on the estate.
Getting back in my car to return to Dundee, part of me itches to instead head up into the hills and explore. The estate has a total of 172 acres of woodland, which forms part of Tay Forest Park – there’s a reason Perthshire is nicknamed Big Tree Country.
Once up in the forest the possibilities are almost endless. You can walk to Pitlochry, six miles distant, or drop down into Grandtully. Pack a tent and you can do a multi-day hike to Aberfeldy, Kenmore or Killin, walking the ridgeline of hills, crossing moorland and navigating forest trails. There’s a whole world to explore up there.
Eastertyre Estate is on sale with Bell Ingram for offers over £1.6 million. A closing date has been set for Wednesday May 19 at12pm.
