Galbraith

The red Swedish house on 'tranquil' tree-clad Scottish estate on offer for £4,450,000

This is a retreat like no other

If you have a few million to spare, you could live the Nordic dream, without leaving Scotland.

Interested? Then the estate agents at Galbraith are currently selling the lush Glenquicken Estate in Dumfries and Galloway at offers over £4,450,000.

Along with 800 biodiverse acres that feature Highland cattle, hay meadows, peatland and forests, the purchase comes with a beautiful red house dating from the 1800s.

The idyllic turf-roofed five-bedroom cottage, Glenquicken House, is situated beside one of the estate’s lochs and was dismantled and shipped over from Sweden in 2005 by the current owner, retired forester Miles Wenner, who is half Swedish.

For those who want to venture into its tourist development potential, there is lapsed planning consent for a yoga or wellness retreat, and the potential to create bothies.

Otherwise, the income from timber harvesting is £100,000 per year, and the owner is currently working with the Swedish Match company on research into the best species to create matches, so there is a hybrid aspen forest on site.

We asked Wenner to tell us more.

Why was it time for you to sell the property?

We’ve loved our time on the estate over the past 30 years, but I’m now 75, and it is time to move on. My wife Britt-Marie is Swedish and we have always spent a lot of time in Sweden – she knows I would just keep planting trees and watching the night skies here forever if she didn’t put her foot down!

Will you be sad to see it go?

We will especially miss the statuesque conifer forest, the Highland cattle and the house. My wife wants to build another house by a lake in a forest in Sweden.

Tell us about your work with the match company?

The Swedish match research is a project to identify the best hybrid aspens that will provide three benefits – great quality wood; a fast-growing, robust species and excellent biodiversity as aspen are home to a wide variety of species. I was a forester for 26 years and I was always interested in the challenge of combining good biodiversity with a commercial crop. We dug up the rootstock of the trees and transported them here to create a 100-acre forest – it is still the biggest single area of aspen forest in Scotland as far as we know.

What kind of opportunities does the estate offer to a buyer?

The projected timber income is £100,000 pa tax free for 20 years. There is the opportunity to create more lochs for wildfowl and trout fishing. There are five especially scenic sites identified to create bothies. There is a further 100 acres suitable for tree planting, including Caledonian woodland. There is lapsed planning permission for a wellness retreat/yoga centre/holistic retreat, in keeping with the tranquillity of the landscape. The whole estate is within the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere Reserve designated by NatureScot for its unspoilt landscapes and rural communities.

Tell us about importing the house from Sweden, was that a difficult process?

The house is an 1800s Swedish farmstead and there is just no way to replicate the quality of the timber with modern materials. These houses are built to last, energy efficient and timeless. Sometimes in Sweden they are re-located. Each timber is numbered and will only fit in a particular place - you can dismantle and move, as long as you stick to the original design. It took less than a month to take the house down, and around three months to rebuild in Scotland, then many years to finish and furnish to our taste. We re-used everything we could, even the outside meter-box. As a retired forester, I believe that modern materials don’t compare. I always want the patina of age to add character.

There are some lovely textiles - especially rugs - in the house, are they Swedish heirlooms?

There are handmade, traditional Swedish cotton floor and other rugs, also some African rugs and other killims.

What are your favourite rooms in the house?

A wooden house has an intrinsically warm and cosy feel. The living room is probably our favourite for the views of the landscape and loch. Plus the master bedroom for its space.

And, on the land?

There is a great spot above Pibble Mine with the ruins of an old three-storey pump engine with a dramatic view of the Cairnsmore of Fleet (2,000 feet to the summit) and the Clints of Dromore. The banks of the river, called the Englishman’s Burn, are also tranquil and beautiful.

Best wildlife spots?

We have seen royal stags (12 points to the antler), otters, golden eagle, and sometimes have curlew nesting on the house roof (it’s a turf roof), plus flocks of wonderful sandmartins flying to and from their nests by the house. There are wild goats here too – they sometimes climb on to the garage roof!

What's the local area like - any favourite shops or eating out stops in the nearish vicinity?

The Isle of Whithorn Steampacket Inn is great for fish and has a wonderful community spirit. Castle Douglas is about 40 minutes in the car and is designated as a ‘food town’ because of the number of independent restaurants and delis – fantastic choice and a wide variety of different cuisines. If you want live music Newton Stewart is the place. This area remains relatively unknown compared with many other parts of the UK, but the community and the scenery are second to none.