Buyers queue up for £5m Scottish island estate once owned by Genesis

Potential buyers are queuing up to view a Scottish island estate with a derelict country house and a £5 million plus price tag.

The dilapidated Pennyghael House, at the heart of Pennyghael estate on Mull, has not been lived in for more than 30 years and is in need of total renovation.

However, the land assets of the 8,710 acre estate on the idyllic Ross of Mull, is attracting interest from home and abroad.

Scenery at the Mull estate

Far from the madding crowds the estate has almost nine miles of rugged coastline and cliffs, making it the perfect place to escape from the Covid-19 rat race.

Present owners, the Dutch company Epsilon, bought the estate, with frontage to Loch Scridain in the north and the Firth of Lorne to the South, from rock band Genesis in 1997.

And while Epsilon has failed to invest in the big house, the company has ploughed resources into the hunting, shooting and fishing side of Pennyghael, making it the ultimate traditional sporting estate.

Sophie Handley, of The Estates Office, in Oban, which is handling the sale alongside Knight Frank, said: "There has been a huge amount of interest, for a variety of reasons. Some people just want a traditional estate for stalking and shooting and then there is the environmental interest, interest in the forestry and in peat restoration, to improve the quality of the peat, peat bogs absorb and store carbon.

The dilapidated main house on the estate

"Rewilding is also popular at the moment, so the estate spans all areas, from the traditional idea of someone wanting to have their own sporting estate, to someone wanting it for environmental reasons."

Although the estate only went on the market last week, Miss Hanley said it was likely a closing date would be set in a fortnight.

She said: "It's looking like we are going to go to a closing date in a couple of weeks as we already have four very keen people, one is from Belgium, two are from England and another is from Scotland.”

The coastline near the Mull property

On the traditional big house, which needs a lot of funding to bring it back to its former glory, Miss Handley said: "Pennyghael Lodge has got such potential, it is listed and there is potential there to

have a grand house."

A buyer would have five other estate houses they could choose to stay in, while a potential site has been earmarked, subject to planning permission, for anyone wishing to build a new home to their own style.

The main house, which started life as a an old farmhouse, with extensions, including two wings, built on to it over the years, stands in secluded woodland, while the rest of the estate encompasses mile after mile of stunning scenery.

The scenery at the Mull estate

Miss Handley said: "It is beautiful. There is the gentler side, which is around Pennyghael village and down towards Iona and there is the dramatic side, the Carsaig cliffs are part of it, there are fishing lochs near there and wild goats."

Over the centuries the lands that makes up Pennyghael Estate have come under a succession of owners, including the Duke of Argyll in the 1700s.

The sales brochure states: "There is evidence of the communities living on the isle of Mull from 400BC. By 600BC the land had been worked by farmers around the shores of Loch Scridain.