Auchendean, Speyside could make a home or hotel

The house is set high above the surrounding landscape with picture perfect views - there is the River Spey running through the bottom of the glen, the village of Abernethy and its ruined castle on the other side of the water and framing everything else is the 360 degree panorama of the magnificent Cairngorm mountains as a backdrop. You can see six munros from the house, still topped with their winter snow and the scene is about as typically Scottish as you could see anywhere.

When a steam engine gently puffs its way into view down below, it almost feels like it is too much - and whoever is directing the scene has tipped the balance into exaggeration.

But Auchendean’s owner, Ian Kirk, says it is real. “It is the Strathspey Railway from Aviemore that comes to Thornhill station to turn round three times a day in the summer.”

Ian bought Auchendean 29 years ago. Originally from New Zealand, he had worked all over the world as an engineer before coming to Aberdeen and falling in love with the Scottish Highlands as a hillwalker and outdoor enthusiast. “I was told after three years here that I was needed back in London and would probably be going to the Middle East but by that point I had decided that instead I had to stay here and try and make a living however I could.”

A previous stint in Paris in his career had equipped him with not inconsiderable cooking skills so he decided to look for a hotel, or rather a large private house which he could renovate and go on to run as a hotel.

Auchendean was the perfect property to become a project, followed by a business and lifestyle home. Ian says “It was in the right area for tourism and while it was large enough to become a hotel, it certainly needed work.” Over three floors, the top floor which had been servants’ quarters had no running water and there were only two bathrooms for all the bedrooms. “It had been built in 1911 and the layout was very similar to what it would have been. I set about adding en suites to the bedrooms, installing a catering kitchen and replacing the central heating system.”

Using local tradespeople and tackling much of the work himself, Ian was banking on a three year period including build and set up before the hotel began making money - financed from the sale of his house in London. “Towards the end of the three years, things were getting tight, and I was looking at the beautiful stained glass windows half way up the stairs thinking that if I do run out of money, I could always sell those. But they are truly magnificent and one of the features that absolutely sold the house to me when I first saw it, so I’m so glad I didn’t have to.”

Ian was joined by partner Eric Hart, just as the building work of 15 months was completed, and the two embarked on different roles as they opened as a hotel. Ian says “Eric, who is an accountant professionally, has a real talent for cooking, while I took on the front of house  duties.”

Auchendean, both as a hotel and later as a guest house, has been built into a huge success - with visitors returning year after year and Ian and Eric not needing to advertise, such was the demand from frequent guests and word of mouth recommendations. They’ve won awards for cuisine and for hospitality and only recently have scaled back their workload as they head towards retirement. Renovating a one bedroom flat above the detached coach house has allowed them to offer self catering holidays and this is certainly something which the next owner, even if they don’t want a bed and breakfast business, would find lucrative.

The house itself has been a huge draw to its visitors, not just its setting, but its character and grounds. After moving here Eric discovered a passion for landscape gardening and went on to transform the outside space. Now the garden is open to the public in an event each July with its exotic shrubs, rolling lawns and even a nine hold pitch and putt.

Meanwhile Ian planted a kitchen garden from where much of the produce they served to guests originated.

Auchendean has allowed Ian and Eric exactly the kind of life they hoped - although Ian jokes that they’ve been so busy that they haven’t had time for hillwalking which is why they moved here in the first place.

Whether or not the next owners decide to run the house as a business or purely as a family home, the location will remain very special.