36-bedroom home that inspired Burns poem for sale

Galloway House in Newton Stewart. Picture: geograph.co.uk

Galloway House in Newton Stewart boasts 36 bedrooms, 20 acres of land, stunning views out to the Irish Sea and a place in Scottish literature history after the famous bard was refused entrance in the 18th century.

So enraged was he by being turned away from its doors that he penned a poem railing against its owner, the Earl of Galloway.

However despite its literary pedigree the property near Dumfries have been placed on the market for just £595,000.

The huge country manor was built in the early 1740s for Lord Garlies, later the 6th Earl of Galloway.

It was his successor, the 7th Earl, who famously refused Burns entry to Galloway House because he did not like his politics.

Burns later mocked him in his 1793 work ‘Epigrams against the Earl of Galloway’, where he described the peer as having no kindness.

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The sale of Galloway House is being handled by Scottish property law firm Aberdein Considine, which is expecting huge interest from both the UK and abroad.

“Galloway House is a breathtaking home,” said Harvey Aberdein, the firm’s managing partner. “The estate is steeped in Scottish history, and to have inspired the work of Robert Burns, albeit a hostile epigram, is quite an accolade to have.

“Property prices across the country continue to rise sharply, so many people will find the asking price here quite staggering.

“With 11 reception rooms, 36 bedrooms and 28 acres including woodland and popular gardens, the property is vast – and it is located in a beautiful part of the country.”

London house prices leapt by 21.6 per cent annually in August to mark the strongest annual growth seen in the city for 14 years, according to Land Registry data.

As a result the average price of a flat in central London has broken the £1 million barrier for the first time.

A report by estate agents Cluttons on “prime central London” said that values rose by an average of 2.3 per cent in the three months to March taking the average flat to £1.01 million and all residential property to an average of £1.53 million, 6.7 per cent above the previous high recorded in the third quarter of 2007.

The house and estate were owned by successive Earls of Galloway until 1908, when the family were forced to sell up.

It later passed to Lady Forteviot, widow of John Dewar, 1st Baron Forteviot, of the Dewar’s Whisky family, in 1930.

In 1940 – when she died – the house became a hospital for men injured during the Second World War, before Glasgow Corporation bought it and used it as a boarding school.

It was sold back into private ownership in 1976 – firstly to an American and then an Australian.