IT'S one thing working from home in a cramped study but quite another when you are based in a listed Gothic-style villa which looks out on to wooded grounds.
Ogscastle, near Biggar, currently doubles as a home and company headquarters, so when inspiration goes into freefall, you can hug one of the trees on the 49 acres of land.
Bordered on two sides by the South Medwin River, the approach to Ogscastle is as romantic as a Daphne Du Maurier novel. South-facing, the property is reached through a sweeping avenue of lime and beech trees, passing a lodge to a circular carriage driveway in front of the house. Continuing past the east side of the property, the driveway leads to a range of traditional and modern buildings on the north side.
Built in 1817 in Regency style with early Gothic influences, the two-storey house has principal rooms on the upper floor, with the lower rooms, formerly additional bedrooms, converted into office accommodation where the present vendors run their international business.
Although Ogscastle is ideal for home-and-office use, the office accommodation could easily be converted into one large family house.
Sweeping balustraded stone steps lead up to the main entrance on the south side with a fine stone porch into the reception hall. This floor houses the drawing room, study, library, gallery and five bedrooms. The garden floor houses office and living accommodation which includes a farmhouse kitchen with custom-built units and an oil-fired Aga, pantry, laundry with airing pulley, breakfast room and four offices which could easily be converted into bedrooms.
Concentrating on work could be a problem as the formal gardens hold many distractions including an extensive rockery with a series of ponds forming a water garden. Then there is the network of gravel pathways and low box borders, productive herb, vegetable and fruit gardens, not forgetting the small orchard.
Facing south across the garden, the Victorian glasshouse is a hothouse of productivity. In addition to the main house, a lodge cottage protects the entrance to the estate, with a further two-bedroom flat in the stone courtyard. Ogscastle has good stabling and modern outbuildings formerly used to service the estate but these are now now used as workshops and storage for the business.
One piece of unfinished business connected with the property is that Ogscastle was bought in 1815 by Michael Linning who sponsored the Edinburgh Folly, the unfinished national monument to the heroes of the Napoleonic Wars on Calton Hill.
Ogscastle is around five miles north of Biggar and within commuting distance of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Offers over #600,000 are invited, telephone Allison Campbell at Smiths Gore on 0131 555 1200.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article