Craigengillan had stood untouched for more than a century. Before Mark Gibson took the reins at the turn of the millennium, the 2,800-acre Ayrshire estate and former seat of the McAdam family was forgotten, its house and cottages derelict. “The place had a Sleeping Beauty feel about it,” says Gibson.
He set about restoring the properties and landscape — adding nearly 900 acres of native woodlands and protecting the wildlife with more ponds and wetlands. Today, mossy banks and waterways teem with dragonflies, butterflies and lesser-seen birds such as curlew, snipe and kingfishers. At night, “the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon”, he says — it’s within one of the UK’s seven Dark Sky Parks.
Now on the market for £5mn, it’s only the second time in 400 years that the estate will have come up for sale. But it is a distinctly different market to the one 25 years ago. Then, Gibson was a biodiversity and rewilding outlier. Today, many are wanting to follow his path — not only has the profile of interested parties changed in terms of age and nationality, but their intentions for the property have shifted significantly too.
“It’s quite enlightening that [nowadays] it’s not all just about how much you can shoot on these properties,” says Patrick Porteous of Landfor, the Chartered Land & Forestry Agency based in Scotland. While historically valuation was based on an estate’s sporting records, it’s now also about the land type, the habitat, the potential for hospitality — as well as rewilding and making a positive impact on the environment.
“Craigengillan is multi-faceted,” says Tom Stewart-Moore at Knight Frank, which is handling the sale. “It’s got housing stock, holiday lets, a glamping site, an organic farm, forestry and wetlands.” Gibson notes that in its current state it’s self-sufficient, with the income and expenditure, “almost exactly balanced”.
There is also its history; Gibson reels off names of those who’ve visited the house from Robert Burns to Stanley Baldwin. He pinpoints two heydays, the first in the 1780s when John McAdam — of tarmac fame — created the landscapes. And the second in the early 1900s, when the widowed Charlotte McAdam invited in French interior decorators and the water garden specialist who had just finished work at Buckingham Palace. “She went straight to the top,” he says with glee. He has had fun with the restoration though says there’s still “lots more creative work to be done”.
On paper, Craigengillan offers the kind of rural dream that blossomed during Covid, when people were “literally reaching for a gasp of fresh air”, says Robert McCulloch at Strutt & Parker. The market for Scottish estates peaked in 2021, he adds: “The aggregate of purchase prices went from being consistently £50mn-£80mn prior to 2020, to £250mn in 2021.” This came about partly, he continues, with the rise of working from home, and partly due to the emergence of opportunities to earn carbon credits restoring peatland and planting native or semi-native woodland. The latter has attracted a new sector of purchasers including funds and businesses, such as Oxygen Conservation, which acquired several Scottish estates in 2023.
But McCulloch says that market has cooled; a general election followed by a number of tax changes, the prospect of Scotland’s Land Reform bill (which would control whether estates over 2,500 acres are sold in lots or privately in the future), and a softening of confidence in carbon investment provide just some catalysts. In terms of private buyers, however, it’s now proving an interesting time. “It’s a niche sector with a very small number of transactions every year — and it’s a global marketplace,” says McCulloch.
Strutt & Parker’s research shows that around 20-30 estates (of 200 acres or more) are sold in Scotland each year. But of these, “fewer than 10 would be classic estates with a lovely principal house in the centre of them”, says Luke French at Savills. For those with houses, buyers are diversifying. At an estate sold privately through Savills last year on the west coast, 60 per cent of the interest came from outside the UK; eventually the estate went to an overseas buyer. It was a similar story with Dunbeath Castle, which sold last year for £25mn, also to an overseas buyer. Meanwhile Bowland, an 8,000-acre estate in the Borders, went under offer last week for £35mn (together with other farms), prior to which it had “competitive interest from home and abroad”, according to Knight Frank.
The UK market still dominates but the overseas market is growing. According to Strutt & Parker’s data, 25 per cent of purchasers were overseas-based in 2024, compared with 16 per cent in 2023. McCulloch puts it closer to a third of all interest coming from overseas — and of that, he says it is two-thirds European interest with a third from the rest of the world. The Middle Eastern market particularly is opening up, says Matthew Sinclair, whose company Saint offers buying advice. Sinclair believes that Scotland appeals because there is value there — “£2mn buys you a lot more than it does in Surrey” — and because of the privacy and security. Sinclair, French and Stewart-Moore all note that a younger buyer profile is creeping in — in their mid-thirties and forties. “It’s a small percentage of inquiries, but it’s noticeable,” says Sinclair.
These might be people from the tech world looking for seclusion and isolation — events such as the kidnapping of David Balland, co-founder of crypto firm Ledger, and his wife in France earlier this year seem, anecdotally, to be having a ripple effect. “With everything going on in the world, the UK is still seen as a safe haven,” says Stewart-Moore. Bolstering the sense of secrecy is the fact that many estates in Scotland are sold off-market (with a peak of 61 per cent of sales off-market in 2021).
Then there’s the climate. The cooler, often damp climes of Scotland are beckoning those living in the soaringly hot south of the UK, as well as those abroad. Though climate change is hitting Scotland in other ways — take January’s Storm Éowyn, reportedly the strongest storm in the UK in more than a decade — Patrick Porteous of Landfor is hearing from clients that for those coping with extreme heat and droughts it’s still an appealing option — especially in summer. Strutt & Parker has a couple seeking to move after nearly losing their home to the wildfires in LA earlier this year. Meanwhile, Porteous has a number of European clients from densely populated countries such as the Netherlands looking for space and a cool climate matched with a dramatic landscape.
Classic hotspots have traditionally been the West Coast, the Highlands and around Braemar. But Porteous suggests that those seeking wild, open landscapes look to the northern and central Highlands instead, areas “still offering that wilderness experience”. Take Navidale, way up in the north-east Highlands near Brora and currently on the market for £2.65mn with Strutt & Parker. Standing on a rugged stretch of coastline, the 1,146-acre estate — being sold in lots — includes a listed laird’s house, farmland, beaches, waterfalls and mixed woodland.
The islands can also offer good value — though they require a certain type of buyer able to cope with the practical demands of remote living. Strutt & Parker says estates on the outer isles are traditionally valued at 25-40 per cent less than those on the mainland. Landfor currently has Cameron Farm on the market on the Isle of Mull. For £375,000, the house may be derelict but it comes with nearly 200 acres of land, two beaches, a stretch of coastline, native woodland and views over Loch Buie.
In the wake of the pandemic-driven “race for space”, the “rush to rewild” has stepped up pace, following the success of Knepp in West Sussex. But potential buyers with similar ambitions should tread carefully, says Ran Morgan of Ran Morgan Consultancy, which acts on behalf of buyers. He believes there are “one or two absolute gems” available off-market right now, but he sees part of his role as making sure clients know exactly what they’re buying, understanding the commitment and best first steps, and how it fits with the vision they have.
Rewilding can cause the displacement of farming communities, many of whom have been there for years. “The best way forward is to involve the community,” he says. In a far from transient market, neighbours matter. “People stay for five generations and you have to earn your stripes.”
At Craigengillan, Gibson has done this by involving the local community at Dalmellington, the former miner’s village that borders the estate. He recently employed pupils from the local school to plant 16 miles of new hedgerows using native species such as hawthorn, hazel and honeysuckle. He paid them the going rate for a qualified woodsman, and worked alongside them, encouraging them to take an interest in the landscape and feel part of the place.
Gibson has held conservation and community firmly in tandem. Over 25 years he has transformed the landscape — a process he admits has been “incredibly hard work”, not to mention costly, which often comes from the upkeep. The native hardwood trees he has planted, including rowan, silver birch, alder and oak, are “not commercial choices” — they take up to 100 years to reach maturity. They have been chosen to attract the highest number of insects, which bring birds, which bring the next creatures on and on.
Gibson is getting older. He has decided to sell in order to ensure that he can find someone to care for the place and the people at Craigengillan. As with all estates, the rewards come with responsibility.
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