Mull estate tunes up for a multi-million sale

PAUL McCartney made it famous in one of his biggest hits and the former Beatle will still be a neighbour.

The spectacular estate at the southern end of the Mull of Kintyre has gone on sale for 2.95 million.

The 7,360-acre Carskiey Estate has been put on the market by the owners whose family have owned the land on the most south-westerly section of the Kintyre Peninsula since 1964.

It is a few miles from High Park Farm, the Argyll hide-away bought 40 years ago by McCartney, who viewed it with his then girlfriend Jane Asher. It became a bolthole from the pressures of the music business and became a favourite escape of his late wife, Linda.

The idyllic spot inspired McCartney to write Mull of Kintyre, which became his band Wings' biggest hit in 1977 as a Christmas No 1 and was the first single to sell over two million copies in the UK.

The estate is also the site of the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash, which killed all 29 senior army and police security personnel from Northern Ireland on board. The aircraft flew into the hill at full speed in thick fog and the crash spot is marked by a cairn.

The agricultural and sporting Carskiey Estate includes the Edwardian Carskiey House and nine miles of coastline, as well as a productive farm and nine houses and cottages.

Previously called the Carskey Estate, it was the former seat of the MacNeills of Carskey from the early 16th century until it was bought in the early 1900s by James Boyd and his wife Kate.

Other than rewiring carried out in 1989, the house has been relatively untouched since it was built.

It includes the Edwardian equivalent of a spa, a hydropathic bathroom with a "ship's deck" floor and shower hoses for fresh and salt water, although it no longer works.

The estate farm has a 220-strong herd of cows and about 1,270 sheep, while the surrounding area is home to a wide variety of birdlife and animals, including red and roe deer, wild goats, grouse and eagles.

Andrew Smith, a partner at Strutt & Parker, the selling agents, said: "Carskiey is a magical place where you can truly get away from the stress and strains of everyday life and enjoy stunning scenery."