A home owned by the creator of Oor Wullie is up for sale.
Hillbank House is a far cry from the modest little home portrayed in the famous cartoon strip, however.
The five-bedroom, 3 public room Georgian house in Blairgowrie was home to Oor Wullie creator Robert Low for more than 30 years.
Low, formerly managing editor of children’s publications with Sunday Post publisher DC Thomson, was inspired to create the cartoon after watching the antics of his son and his friends. Artist Dudley Watkins then brought to life a set of characters still popular eight decades on.
He owned Hillbank House from 1954-1985.
Low’s spacious former home dates from 1832 and was originally known as Tulach House.
It’s been owned by a Who’s Who of Courier Country characters. John Clark, Major in the Honourable East India Company, lived there in the 1840s and 50s. Two-time Blairgowrie provost James Chalmers had it, and jute manufacturer Joseph Grimmond lived there.
The current owners of this storied house are Murray and Ashley Scott.
Murray (49) who owns the nearby Angus Hotel, and Ashley (50) have lived there for 11 years . The couple have three children aged 14, 12 and 10.
The house is entered through a solid wooden door set between two pillars that leads to a stone flagged vestibule.
Unusually, many of the skirting boards throughout the house are made of stone rather than the usual timber.
The beating heart of the home is the large kitchen which has solid marble worktops, Aga and Belfast sink. There’s a snug family room off which is where Murray and Ashley spend much of their time, with the wood burning stove throwing out plenty of warmth.
A larger and much more formal lounge with twin aspect windows sits to the front of the house and there’s another large room that could be used for dining but is currently set out as an office-cum-guest bedroom.
There’s a downstairs shower room and a set of stone stairs drops into a basement room that’s used as storage but would make a great wine cellar.
Upstairs past an original stained glass window are four large double bedrooms including a master with twin aspect windows, family bathroom and separate WC. Outside are wrought iron gates with a driveway that sweeps right round the house. There’s a large area of garden to the front with views sweeping across Blairgowrie and the Perthshire countryside. A 2KW solar panel system sits on the roof and to one side is a large stone-built former coach house that could be redeveloped.
Oor Wullie’s 80th birthday celebrations this year include Oor Wullie’s Bucket Trail, a huge public art celebration in Dundee in which 55 sculptures of Oor Wullie have been placed at landmarks throughout the city for the summer to raise money for The ARCHIE Foundation’s Tayside Children’s Hospital Appeal. The public is being asked to locate the sculptures, each of which is painted by an artist and sponsored by a business.
Ashley smiles at the Oor Wullie connection: “When we moved in I did find a metal bucket sitting in the house! I don’t know where it got to.”
Hillside House is being marketed by Clyde Properties whose area director Gary Robertson’s wife Aileen Robertson is one of Oor Wullie’s Bucket Trail artists. She designed Oor Wullie Noo, a sculpture in Broughty Ferry sponsored by Balhousie Care Group which depicts the loveable rogue as an old man of 80.