A Pride and Prejudice-style estate is for sale at offers over £15m

‘It’s got so much authenticity, you half expect Mr Darcy to come swaggering out,” Evelyn Channing from the estate agents Savills says of the Georgian gem the Newliston Estate. Set among 764 acres of farmland and fastidiously planned and tended formal gardens — including canals and ponds inspired by the Palace of Versailles and tree-lined avenues forming a Union Jack — this grand and unspoilt £15 million Adam mansion and its surrounds bring to mind the romantic sweeping countryside of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. If you ignore the occasional roar of a jumbo jet landing at the international airport next door, at least.
On the market for the first time after an unbroken legacy of ownership by the Hog family and its descendants reaching all the way back to the 1790s, Newliston lies as close to the Scottish capital as possible for any large county house and estate. You can be on Princes Street within 20 minutes of stepping out of the front door (not to mention at Edinburgh International Airport within about five minutes).
Equally if you wander among the lush green fields and forests of the estate, you could almost trick yourself into believing you were somewhere deep in the Highlands — or the Derbyshire moors, if you really are an Austen fan.
“To me the most extraordinary thing is the fact that there is this absolutely magnificent estate literally on the edge of Edinburgh,” Channing says. “And I wasn’t even aware of it until recently.” There are many venerable stately piles in and around the city but few insulated by so much land as Newliston.
Some of it is farmed by a local farmer, some comprises a profitable portfolio of let residential and commercial properties. “Having that land gives you privacy and it gives you the security of knowing you are in control of your immediate surrounds,” Channing adds.
Newliston has the unique distinction of being the last country house designed by Robert Adam, one of the most famous British architects of the 18th century, responsible for Syon House in London, Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, among other masterpieces.
From pilasters to complex pastel colour schemes and decorative wall friezes reminiscent of something from ancient Rome, it features a lot of his trademark neoclassical touches. “You can really tell that you’re in [an] Adam house,” Channing says.
In addition to 13 bedrooms, it has five separate reception rooms including a majestic bow-windowed room overlooking the parklands to the north and a ballroom in the east wing with a sprung dancefloor, ideal for ceilidh dancing.
Newliston is owned by the Maclachlan family, distant ancestors of Roger Hog, a London merchant who bought the estate in 1747 from the Earl of Stair before leaving it to his son, Thomas Hog. It was he who commissioned Adam to design the house in 1789.
With the next generation of the Maclachlans having taken the hard decision to end its long run in the family, Newliston’s future could lie in any number of directions. Be it as a majestic private home or a commercial venture such as a wedding venue or boutique hotel or as something in between.Offers over £15 million, savills.com