Prestige property: New England feel amid Angus fields

Whitecroft, Kingennie, Broughty Ferry. Picture by DTX images

Highlights of the L-shaped home are the spacious kitchen flanked by a triple-aspect sitting room and a fully glazed sun room, a spectacular master bedroom suite and beautiful landscaped gardens.

The Angus property was originally two farm cottages joined together, but was reconfigured 24 years ago when Cindy Forbes bought it with her late husband, Graham, on his retirement from farming.

She explains: “We had farmed here for 40 years and the cottage sits right in the middle of our land, but this property didn’t belong to us and – I didn’t know it – but my husband had always coveted it.

“I thought that when we retired, and our son took over the farm, that we would move to Broughty Ferry and go for coffees and live in town.

But Graham had other ideas – you don’t take a farmer off his land – so we bought this and stayed.”

To create a single larger home, and to modernise the building, was a huge project. Every interior wall was taken down and the house was rewired and replumbed with dry and wet rot treatments carried out. Four modern bathrooms were created and the building was extended.

It now measures 400sq m internally and is a long way from its humble origins.

For one, it is economical to heat. Cindy says: “It is a nice warm house. The windows are from Sweden and triple-glazed. Our son-in-law once commented that Graham and I were obsessed with personal comfort, but Graham’s priorities were plenty of storage, having everything wellmade, and having a cosy house.”

There are no steps internally, but Whitecroft sits atop a gently sloping garden, giving it a raised position to enjoy some amazing views – some 60 miles on a good day to St Andrews, Kinross and Kinnoull Hill.

Cindy is originally from New England in the US, and so when the Forbes erected the detached garage it was painted red to remind her of the colourful barns of her youth.

Inside, the kitchen has a handfitted New England-vibe too.

However, Cindy says: “I burst into tears when I first saw the size of it. Graham’s reasoning was that he was a big man and he wanted a big kitchen, but it looked so daunting when it was empty.

“But the large central island makes it work and I’ve really enjoyed cooking in it all these years.”

As well as her son, Cindy has three daughters. She says: “This house hosted Christmas last year – I have 12 grandchildren and four great grandchildren, so it is important that it can take a crowd.”

The garden is all Cindy’s work. She explains: “Farmers don’t garden, so I did it along with a gardener, and we sometimes hire a student in the summer to mow the lawn.”

The site was originally a flagpole shape, with just a driveway and the immediate square of land Whitecroft sits on, but fortunately, with their son owning the surrounding land, the Forbes were able to take a little of the fields on either side of the drive to create a larger site of just over an acre.

The extra land was used on one side to accommodate the garage and create a lawn, variously used for football or croquet, and on the other to plant trees.

There are also raised beds for fruit and vegetables and a productive greenhouse. The Whitecroft view changes with the seasons and the rotation of crops. Cindy says: “I never know what the outlook will be. Sometimes it is peas or broad beans, and other years it will be wheat or barley – which I adore because, when it blows, it looks like horses racing over the fields.

“You look beyond and you see the North Sea and the sand dunes at Tentsmuir and, if the sun is shining, it can look like the Caribbean.”

Whitecroft, Kingennie, Broughty Ferry, is priced at offers over £700,000.

For more information, contact Galbraith on 01334 659 980.

Whitecroft, Kingennie, Broughty Ferry. Picture: DTXimages

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