Story of a traditional Highland Estate.
Balblair Estate is a traditional Highland sporting and crofting estate. Today, the estate stands at around 1650 acres. To give some scale, this is approximately 4½ times the size of London's Hyde Park - although this is relatively small for a Highland estate. Balblair House, the principle residence of the estate, sits on a separate plot, separated from the main estate land by the swathe of forestry (behind the house). Beyond this the estate comprises mainly of traditional hill ground and is predominantly grazings shared by the Estate and Crofts.
Balblair House, c.1955
4 crofts are currently let to individual crofters. Crofting is a form of agricultural land holding and management unique to only 5 counties of Scotland and there are special rules and restrictions that attach to "crofted" land. These impact on both the crofter and the landlord and the system is overseen by the Crofting Commission, a government body. The owners of the estate are the crofting landlord.
Balblair was owned for many years by the local Campbell family and they oversaw numerous changes throughout the 20th century, including some significant remodelling of Balblair House in around 1958. Their ownership culminated in a sale of the estate to Mohammed Al-Fayed in 1970 for £240,000, a record price, per acre, for a Scottish estate, at the time. Al-Fayed arrived by helicopter, landing on the field in front of the house and the deal was done.
The brochure produced by agents Knight Frank & Rutley (as they were then known) in an attempt to sell time-share ownership in the whole estate.
Estate location
The brochure produced by agents Knight Frank & Rutley (as they were then known) in an attempt to sell time-share ownership in the whole estate.
Al-Fayed owned the estate and house for around 8 years, selling in around 1979 to Edward Watts, a businessman from Bedfordshire who saw an opportunity to take advantage of the "time-share" concept which was starting to become very popular in the early 1980's. He sought to sell time-share ownership of the whole estate and house.
In anticipation of the time-share offer, a certain amount of work was carried out to the house, and Knight Frank & Rutley were appointed to market the concept. In the end, the time-share idea was not successful for Balblair. But his engineering business in England was thriving, and Edward, with his wife Yvonne, decided to turn Balblair into their personal holiday home and estate.
Time-share brochure, c.1981
The Watts owned the estate for many years, but with both well into their 80's, sadly, in 2014, they passed away and Balblair was, once again, on the market. The sale attracted a lot of attention with over 50 viewings in a short space of time following some coverage in the national press. However, for most interested buyers, the romance of becoming a Highland Laird and living on a traditional estate soon drained away - and reality set in - when they realised the level of repairs, alterations and maintenance the house and estate were in need of and in the end there were 4 competing and enthusiastic parties. Following a sealed bidding process the current owners successfully purchased the house and estate as two separate entities in 2017.
