A 10-bedroom country house in Fife is available to rent for £3,500 – and that’s just for a weekend.
Balmule House near Dunfermline is a 16th century house that was built for one of Fife’s most prominent families – the Wardlaws.
They had been members of King Malcolm’s court in the 12th century and played a key role in establishing St Andrew’s University in the 15th century.
The 10,000 sq ft house features 10 bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus grounds that stretch for 30 acres.
It was owned at one time by the late Big Country star Stuart Adamson, who used one of the outbuildings as a recording studio.
Current owner Franc Jeffrey bought the property in 2008, though he admits his purchase was a complete accident.
“It was a complete impulse buy,” he said.
“I saw somewhere in Edinburgh the same weekend and thought that was the one I wanted.
“In the meantime, I couldn’t get anyone to cancel the appointment at Balmule so I decided to go along. I walked in here and just fell in love with it.”
Returning Balmule House to former glory
Mr Jeffrey said he bought Balmule for £1.3 million as a project, and began by removing the roof.
A year’s worth of work followed restoring the house, parts of which had been closed off by former owners.
He added: “I wanted to create something that retains the original features but inside has all the mod-cons.
“This house was really lucky that it survived the 70s in the time when people would lower ceilings and rip out fireplaces.
“The house has had extensions added but it hasn’t undergone any major renovation. Nothing had really taken it into the way we live now.
“When I bought the place it had 13 bedrooms and two bathrooms and owners over the years had closed parts of the house off to make it more manageable.
“The original features just needed to be restored.
“It was a big job, but one where we didn’t have any problems.”
From bed and breakfast to wedding venue
After investing about £250,000 on top of the purchase price into the project, Mr Jeffrey opened the house to become a bed and breakfast.
That stopped a number of years ago. Balmule House is now only available for exclusive use for functions or events, such as weddings.
Mr Jeffrey, who works for a travel management company, now employs two full-time members of staff.
Other part-time staff are brought in to help with weddings.
“We concentrate on corporate groups or weddings,” he added.
“A lot of them are booking pretty much when they leave, so we’ve been really fortunate.
“The best thing about the house is that it still feels like a home. It doesn’t feel like a venue.”
Mr Jeffrey added work will be constantly ongoing at Balmule to keep it in tip-top shape.
But the next phase of his plan for the house is to create a wellness centre.
He plans to open EQ6, so named to reflect the six areas of wellness required to reach the point of equilibrium.
Conversation