Easter Campsie Farmhouse is an extraordinary home.
The original farmhouse has been joined to what was a ruined steading. The farmhouse is filled with modest spaces that are cosy and homely.
Step into the steading and the rooms have the grandeur of a medieval hall, with vaulted ceilings, huge windows and doors, and exposed timber beams.
Then there is what must be one of the most impressive indoor swimming pools of any private home in Scotland, with colossal timber arcs framing the blue water of the pool.
Two solar panel arrays and two air source heat pumps make Easter Campsie an environmentally friendly property.
The home is set in nearly 10 acres of Perthshire countryside, within sight of Glenalmond College and just a few hundred metres from the River Almond.
Extraordinary owners
Its owners are as extraordinary as the house itself. Rosanna Forbes is a counsellor and psychotherapist who deals with everything from addiction issues to bullying, anxiety, bereavement and depression.
Her partner Mike Heseltine, meanwhile, is an artist with an international reputation. Formerly a major figure in the London artworld, he was commissioned by the Palace of Westminster to do a series of works on the theme ‘places Parliament has sat’.
He held solo exhibitions at the Cadogan Gallery in London’s West End. His works are on display in the Palace of Westminster and form part of the Parliament Collection.
In 2003 Mike bought an 18-acre island off the West Coast of Scotland. He embraced Buddhism and abandoned his commercially successful style of painting.
Instead, he began producing charcoal on paper drawings that have a simplicity intended to reflect his Buddhist leanings. He doesn’t sell these works (although they are available as greetings cards) and creates them for his own contentment.
Rosanna and Mike bought Easter Campsie Farmhouse around 15 years ago. The house is at the end of a farm track just to the south of the River Almond. In addition to 9.5 acres of its own grounds, it’s surrounded by fields and woodland. There are superb views in all directions.
Inside Easter Campsie Farmhouse
The farmhouse has a sitting room on the ground floor that is a lovely snug space with a wood burner set into a stone fireplace. The timber panelling on the walls looks original but in fact Mike and Rosanna fitted it themselves.
Across a hallway is the open plan kitchen/dining/living space, which has comfortable seating and an area with a desk that’s used as office space by Rosanna.
There’s an Aga, an island, and a pantry, and exposed stone walls that add extra character.
On the first floor are two double bedrooms, one of which is used as the principal bedroom. These share two bathrooms, one with a stunning freestanding copper bath, a copper sink, and an original fireplace. There’s also a dressing room beside the main bedroom.
The house is filled with unique and special furnishings, many of which are hand carved and originated in India and the Far East.
“We became obsessed with trawling round architectural salvage yards,” Rosanna explains. “A lorry would come down the drive three months later filled with stuff we’d forgotten about buying.”
The farmhouse has been linked to the steading by a new corridor, which has a full wall of glazing and a wood burning stove.
Amazing steading conversion
When Mike and Rosanna bought the Easter Campsie the steading was a ruin. The walls were standing but the roof was caved in and it was in a sorry state.
They’ve transformed it into an absolutely stunning addition to their home. An oak and beech frame was built using traditional methods and its beautiful arches support the new roof.
What the estate agent has labelled as the drawing room, Mike and Rosanna simply call ‘the big room.’ It is big – very big – with a vaulted ceiling, a firepit inside a huge stone fireplace, and glazed doors to the garden. “This is where we hold gatherings, Christmases and birthdays,” Mike explains.
The games room is another versatile room, with a spiral staircase up to a mezzanine level. It has timber flooring with a pathway of stone slabs running through the middle to prevent wear where it’s most walked upon.
This pathway leads through into the amazing pool room. Built in the gap between the two wings of the steading, it has a double height ceiling and a full wall of glass looking out over the Perthshire scenery.
There’s plenty of space around the pool for entertaining, and a balcony from the mezzanine floor above (Mike says, with a shudder, that his adult children have admitted to leaping off the balcony into the pool when they were youngsters).
Anyone not wanting a swimming pool could cover it up and turn this room into a fantastic entertaining space that would no doubt be the heart of the house.
Renewable features
Easter Campsie has two air source heat pumps; one heats the pool and the other heats the house. Meanwhile, there are two solar panel arrays. The first heats water and the second supplies electricity and generates an income of around £1,700 a year from the feed-in tariff.
The ground floor of the steading holds another large reception room with a spiral staircase to the bedroom level. There’s also a garage, which houses Mike’s prized Jaguar E-Type. This room could easily be turned into further accommodation or even a self-contained studio flat.
The upper level of the steading has four bedrooms, a balcony above the pool, and two mezzanine levels.
All told, Easter Campsie Farmhouse has an enormous 750sqm of living space.
The house comes with 9.5 acres, some of which has been planted with native trees, with the majority left to grow naturally. An additional 8.5 acres of woodland located a couple of miles away is available for sale separately.
With their children having grown up and left home, Easter Campsie is far too big for Rosanna and Mike. The couple have a property in Edinburgh and an off-grid home on their remote island.
“We spend part of our lives in Edinburgh and part of it on the island,” Mike explains. “Our island is 18 acres at high tide and 22 acres at low tide. You get a ferry from Oban and then it’s a 10-minute row.
“We love going from the buzz and excitement of Edinburgh to the seclusion and tranquillity of the island.”
Easter Campsie Farmhouse, Glenalmond, is on sale with Savills for offers over £1.3 million.
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