Country estate eyed by David Cameron on market at £10.5m

A property frequented by Queen Victoria and which has been rumoured as a potential new home for David Cameron has been put on the market for offers over £10.5 million.

The estate was mooted as a potential new home for former Prime Minister David Cameron. Picture: Hemedia

Tillypronie Estate, in Aberdeenshire, was last month said to be being considered by the former Prime Minister and his family but the owner, Philip Astor, whose family has owned the property since 1951, insisted it was not for sale.

However, the 12,000-acre estate has today been put on the market by estate agency Strutt and Parker.

The property was also at the centre of an EU funding row earlier this year after it emerged that nearly £400,000 of EU farming subsidies were paid to the estate’s trust to plant trees.

Tillypronie Estate was often visited by Queen Victoria. Picture: Hemedia

The estate, which has views over the Dee valley, was built in 1867 by Sir John Clark, the diplomat son of Queen Victoria’s physician, Sir James Clark. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone and used to visit Tillypronie with her “friend and confidante” John Brown.

Owner Mr Astor, who inherited the property in 1984, said: “Tillypronie is a truly magical place, which has given huge pleasure to family and friends of all ages since I inherited it over 30 years ago. I have worked hard to restore the grouse moors to something approaching their former
glory, but I feel it is now time for someone else to continue that exercise.”

Over the course of its history, Tillypronie has welcomed many notable figures, including American writer Henry James, who described it as “this supremely comfortable house – lying deep among the brown and purple moors”.

It was reported earlier this year that the Tillypronie Estate Trust received £385,279 from the Common Agricultural Policy in 2014 for “first afforestation of agricultural and non-agricultural land”. Strutt & Parker said at the time that the funds were a “one-off payment” and said the estate “does not receive an annual subsidy from the EU”.

Strutt and Parker said that the claim that the Camerons were interested in the estate was only “a rumour”.