Foreign Property News | Posted by Zarni Kyaw
‘I didn’t know you could actually buy a castle,’ says Simon Hunt, sitting in the stone-walled kitchen nook of his 16th-century Scottish pile with wife Stef Burgon.
‘I thought they were passed from first son to first son, like in Game Of Thrones.’
The pile in question – Kilmartin Castle – built in 1550 during the time of Mary, Queen of Scots – came to Stef and Simon’s attention when they had been living and working in dream jobs in Dubai for more than a decade.
The pair came across an article saying central London parking spaces were now so expensive that you could actually buy a Scottish castle for the same price.
The picture of the castle in the article looked so beautiful they decided to investigate.
Stef, 45, and Simon, 43, had already fallen in love with Scotland after a Christmas spent with her family in Newcastle.
The idea of buying a castle was initially something they liked to fantasise about over glasses of wine, ‘because we’re not wealthy castle-owning kind of people,’ says Simon.
(The couple bought the castle for £331,780 in 2014 (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
‘My parents came to look at it for us,’ says Stef of the Argyle property, which is a two-hour drive from Glasgow and a similar distance from Ben Nevis. ‘They said that if they were our age, they would definitely do it.’
(Stef and Simon were working in Dubai before they found Kilmartin Castle)
In fact, it came down to sealed bids and, even though Stef thinks theirs wasn’t the highest, they wrote such a heartfelt letter about how much they loved the castle and how much work they would do on it, they won out against the competition with owners who had been on a similar journey with the castle themselves.
Simon sold a property in his native Australia and, having bought Kilmartin, they had £80,000 left to play with.
(For 6 months the couple scoured antique fairs all over Europe collecting treasures)
Two years later, they came back to get married in the castle – destroying the septic system in the process, what with all those guests – but it was only in 2018 that they finally quit their jobs in Dubai, got themselves a camper van and went on a six-month Europe-wide road trip around the biggest and best antique fairs.
(They were on a mission to give the castle what they call a ‘rustic-luxe’ look)
(The previous owner, a stonemason, kept the outside of the castle in good nick)
(A wood-burner helps to keep the vast property warm during the colder months (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(There’s underfloor heating too for enhanced coziness (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(The window nooks are for reading and looking out over the glen (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(They opened as a boutique B&B in 2019 (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(The castle sleeps up to ten guests (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(We bet this dining room has seen some wild parties (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(With two acres of land, you don’t have to worry about disturbing the neighbours (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
(Up to 20 guests can have dinner under the stars (Picture: Emily Sandifer)
Ref: Photo Credit-Emily Sandifer
