Stunning new solid stone house in Elie on market for £825k

Tanglewood is a traditional-looking yet very modern house in the grounds of Elie House Estate.

It enjoys a fabulous location on the edge of one of Fife’s most famous villages. A pair of stone arches and a gatehouse guard the private road that leads into the estate. Tanglewood is close to a smattering of other houses, giving it a sense of community.

Elie Beach is a 15-minute stroll away. Meanwhile, five minutes’ walk along a path running past the house brings you to the tranquil shores of Kilconquhar Loch.

Tanglewood is in an idyllic location surrounded by trees. Image: Gordon Bruce.

With its stone walls, arched entrance, and elegant proportions Tanglewood looks similar to the many traditional homes in the area. In fact it was only completed a couple of years ago.

It was designed by architect Gordon Bruce, who built it as a home for himself and his wife Sharon.

Story behind Tanglewood

“My family comes from Elie and my grandfather had a lovely house on Bank Street,” Gordon explains.

“When he passed away my father sold the house without telling me. It made me really angry and we actually fell out about it. My father had narcolepsy and he found a lot of decision making stressful. Eventually he regretted his decision to sell and we made up with each other.”

Gordon and Sharon Bruce at Kilconquhar Loch. Image: Gordon Bruce.

The East Neuk village never quite left Gordon’s mind, however. “When we were thinking of building our own house my wife said why don’t we look in Scotland,” he continues. “I had a look online and immediately this plot for sale in Elie jumped out at me.”

Tanglewood’s foundations taking shape. Image: Gordon Bruce.

Tanglewood sits on one of four plots in the grounds of Elie House that were for sale around the same time. As an architect, Gordon designed Tanglewood himself, but getting it built took longer than expected.

“There were some legal issues to iron out,” he says. “Getting all the legal stuff sorted, through planning, and doing the build took eight years. Covid also added to the delay.”

Design and build

Gordon spearheaded the build from his then-home in Yorkshire: “I wore tyre tracks in the M6 shuttling up and down to oversee things,” he says. “Fortunately we had a fantastic team of local trades.

“WL Watson of St Andrews were the stonemasons. Donaldson and Son of Upper Largo were the joiners. They were all really good.”

The walls are solid stone. Image: Rettie.

Very unusually for a new build, the walls at Tanglewood are built from solid stone. “We didn’t use a timber kit,” Gordon says. “It cost more but I wanted to build something good quality that won’t fall down in a few decades. It’s a house that’s built to last hundreds of years.”

Tanglewood is surrounded by trees. Image: Rettie.

It may look traditional and be traditionally built, but Tanglewood is very modern when it comes to environmental features. It’s extremely well insulated and an air source heat pump provides heating and hot water. Solar panels also help keep energy costs low.

Exploring the house

A gated pathway runs up to the house and leads to an arched stone porch. A timber front door opens into an entrance vestibule and hallways with wooden flooring and built-in storage.

The living room has a wood burner and pleasant views. Image: Rettie.

The living room enjoys a dual aspect and has access to the rear garden via a set of glazed doors. A log burning stove sits in a fireplace and provides plenty of warmth during the winter months.

At the heard of the home is the dining kitchen. Full height windows overlook the front and rear of the house, with sliding glazed doors opening the room to the back garden.

There is plenty of space for dining. Image: Rettie.

An L-shaped hand-crafted kitchen has hidden mood lighting and cabinetry in a soft duck egg blue. An adjacent utility houses the washing machine and drier. The ground floor has a home office WC, and an en suite double bedroom.

A custom-made oak staircase accesses the upper floor. Up here are four large double bedrooms, each with a pleasant view of the surrounding countryside.

Tanglewood has five bedrooms. Image: Rettie.

Two have luxurious en suite shower rooms, while the other bedrooms share a high spec family bathroom, which includes a rainfall shower enclosure and a freestanding double-ended copper effect bath.

The bathrooms have luxury fittings. Image: Rettie.

The large rear garden faces southwest and gets the sun until the end of the evening. To the front there is a small gated garden and a driveway with parking for several cars.

Moving on

Gordon trained as an architect and has his own practice, Bruce + Bruce, which operates across Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and St Andrews.

This is the second house he has built for himself. “The first one was in Manchester, something like 30 years ago, which was a family home for us and the kids to live in,” he says.

Tanglewood is on sale for £825,000. Image: Rettie.

Gordon, 68, and Sharon, 72, intended to live at Tanglewood for a long time. However after a little over two years there, personal reasons mean their lives are going in a different direction and they’ve put the house on the market.

“We had a fantastic couple of years there,” Gordon says. “My wife, myself and our grown up son shared the house. I have a lot of great memories of our time there.

View from the front door. Image: Rettie.

“Perhaps my favourite thing about it is the nature. You get red squirrel, deer, badgers, hares. It’s quite bucolic. Elie Beach is just a 15 minute walk away but the house is in the trees so it’s sheltered. And Kilconquhar Loch is just quarter of a mile away.”

Tanglewood, Elie House Estate, Elie is on sale with Rettie for offers over £825,000.