Sale of Scottish Estates

Southland Times, Issue 11673, 2 March 1891, Page 4

Sale of Scottish Estates

'■■ ♦ In an interesting article on the sales of land daiiosT the year, the Pall Mall Gazette says : —We moat turn to Scotland for land trans •ctioaa on a big scale. It is many years since ■oca a number of magnificent properties have 'taen in the market. Five separate estates kave been exposed.asthe Scottish auctioneers ' aay, with reserve prices in every case of more than L 200.000. Durria, in Aberde«n«hire, 17,000 acres in exteDt, with a rental value of L 9700, was withdrawn at L27Q.000 before baing privately bought by Mr Baird.of Oartsberrie. There are Baird* of Crie, EUirdu of ▲achme4d«s,Bairdsof Stitcbellaod Kilmnir, aod now Bairde of Durr s —powerful territorial families, all of them fathered on ihe Lanarkshire iron-mills. Scarcely lets valuable, and much more beautiful is Cloerbum, in Dumfriesshire, 13,612 acres, worth 19093 in annual rents, which has so far been offered in Tain. This is beiDg sold by tbe coheireaeea of Mr Douglas Bairn, of Cloeeburn. Forty thousand acre* of moor in Caithness, with the salmon fishine on the Tkurso Hirer, for which Sir G. Tollemache Sinclair wants an owner, did not excite a bid that approached the limit of L 205 000. Sir George I\ Olerk, of Pern>uik, has mainly a»ked L 2' 0,000 for bi- 10 627 ac e» in Mid Lothian. *he Per>i<- k esote ha« » rent-roll of LBOOO and t c man«i.n »^mbelliahed by bunciman * frescoes, «'and* in a lovely park of 800 acres, through which the rapid Isk flows. Colonel Macdonalci's Perthahire lands of St. Martin s, Bandirran, and aod Bnttergask. and the m-ors of Glensbee, 13,200 acres in all, were first withdrawn at L 210.000, bnt the upset price is now reduced t0L195,000. Bandirran alone, which sitnds for L 43.000 of this, was bought from Mrs Drummond, of Gairdrum for T 90,000 in 1871. Theae were golden days for the laJrda. A sixth property, Sir William Ellio -'s lands of Stcbs, flallrule, and Lvmiecleuch,in Boxbnrgbshire, extending to 16 500 acres and worth LBIOO a year, also stands for sale at L 195.000. This is an unparalleled cluster of properties simultaneously in the market There are taauy others little lets imposing. Danalastau, a Perthshire sporting e*tate <>i 30,000 acres, wag purchased six je rs ago for ii 153,000 by the late Mr -ugh Tennant, thr Glasgow brewer. Abwut the same extent is fikibo, in wutherland»bire, or which tbe upset price is L 125.000. Lord Clinton off-rn the 3B9o acres of lnvermav.on tbe west *\ p Of the Ochils, for L 85,000. Dun:o»si', in Illay, 17.C90 io-ep, «v bDD:>h' in at L 66 000. The limit placed on tbe 11, 1^0 acres of or»e, in Caith-^feis, has been reduced from L BO 000 ' to L 62000 An ownerjs sought for B>dca»tlr, in the Black Isle, also for the lands of unnish, is t"kye, the latter alone extennint; to 25000 acres, while the 6000 acres of Bsllaehalish were recently withdrawn at L 77.000. | Tet there we.c many succeeefol sales. The Dute of Fife has ,got rid of forms and mansions in B»; flEhiie and Mnrajehire wboU--ea'e; The biggest transactions were those in which Colonel Foster Forbes, of Dunlugas, took over the 2000 acrei of Bothiemay, aud Mr J. B. Findtay, who made large *<<di ions to his estate of Bucbromb. The Dukr of Buccleoch is anothei Scottish landlord who is ge.ting out of land wberevt-r he c»r. He recejtl" sold five of bin f»rm« to Mr Brook of Bed dam Castle, for L2O 000, an<i bat petitioned the Court of Session to cut off the entail from other land in variou* counties, with the idea of selling tbem. During tbeyrar Sir Cunliffe Brooks completed the purchase of Glen tan a, in Aboyn*, from his • n-in law, the Marquis of Hantly, for M 20,000. Culoreneh, in Htirlingsfeire, 7000 acres, w<th a house ck»rmingly placed among tbe Wintry Hills, has Keen taken over from Lady Home Spiers, b? Mr Walters, of Cr«igtor, and tbe lovely estate of Balfour in Fifeshirt, by Mrs Wemyss, of Castle Wemyss, from Mr Bethone. These are all notable sales, as is also Mr Mnnro> Ferguson's di*posal of Kildermorie, in Boss-shire, to Mr Walter flhool bred, which brings op the deer-forest of the greac shopkeeper to 50.000 acres. Among lesser but important Scottish sales are those of S win ton in Berwickshire, he'd by the Hwintons for 800 years, forLS2OOO; Ea*t Dudninggtone and B-nTstade, for »V'icb 'he Benbur Coal Compsny reciVf d I 67 350; Pi-ilipHaugb »old by Sir John Murray to Mr » eel ; and ' alderwood, in Lanarkshire, long the home • f tbe Maxwells, but now eecured by C«ptain Dundas Gill for L 45 0 0 The o;os< striking instances of depreciation arti< ne th» ~co'tit»b lales were those 'f Eaftfi^ld «»nd Kir on of Auchtereouse. fgo hdrr, in K/itarshire, bought for 131,500 fifteen yenrs fc? , and now told for Lih,ooo to Cjam-illor Wiiisb*»-, of Dandee, and Uarno.k, in Fif*--hi-»-, lt)CK> acrer, valued a few je»'« ago at LGOjOOf^, snd recently icqatreri by Mr Mucq-I, i-f 'Uiicoaltry, for iwo-ihirds of tha l g :m.