For sale: a little Highland pile nestling in upstate New York

Sitting in eight acres of land, the 5,000sq ft building seems every inch the medieval castle, with vast stone vaulted halls, hidden passages and, it is even rumoured, its own ghost.

But there is a catch – the buyer will need to travel to the United States to take up residence.

The property is in fact a reproduction of a 13th century Scottish castle, built in New City, in Rockland County, upstate New York, around 1920.

It has come on the market for the first time in more than 50 years following the death last year of Dr Martha MacGuffie, an eminent plastic surgeon and devotee of all things Scottish.

The house was the creation of Harold Deming, a New York lawyer specialising in maritime and aviation law, who drew his inspiration from a visit to Scotland.

Pamela Hudson, Dr MacGuffie’s youngest daughter and executor of her will, said: “There is a story about Harold going to see his wife-to-be who was studying in Scotland, back in 1914.

“He travelled around the countryside and was inspired by what he saw. He had an architect to help him with the plans, but he built this according to his own fancy.”

Dr MacGuffie had always said that the property was based on a Scottish castle built in 1229, but exactly which property is not known.

However Ms Hudson said there was “no denying” its Scottish roots. When it was bought for Dr MacGuffie by her husband Perry Hudson in 1959, the property had been uninhabited for many years.

Ms Hudson said: “My mother was definitely somebody who enjoyed a certain amount of grandiosity, but the house was barely into the 20th century.

“There was no central heating, it had to be completely outfitted with proper modern electricity. They had to do quite a lot of refurbishing of the plumbing as well.

“When we first moved there was an icicle hanging from the ceiling of the Great Hall that was so large that two people could not hold hands around it.”

Over the years, Dr MacGuffie highlighted the building’s old world connections.

Ms Hudson said: “My mother had been to Scotland. She went to Colonsay and Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides, where her family came from originally. She did very extensive research on her family and where she came from. She was fascinated with it.

“She had the family tartan hanging on the portrait of her father in the Great Hall, she had the MacPhie tartan, her original clan, draped around it along with a Glencoe brooch.

“As children, we listened to bagpipe music and marched around the house on Saturday mornings. It was like growing up in Scottish theatre.

“Our dogs were named MacDuff, MacBeth and Angus. My mother made Scottish shortbread all the time. It was such a big deal for her when she finally got to visit Scotland.”

The high cost of maintaining the property has forced the Hudson family to sell. The furniture has been auctioned, and the price has been dropped from $1.5 million (£960,000) to $999,999 (£638,000).

Ms Hudson said: “I know there’s a creative person out there who will enjoy taking it into the 21st century.”