Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Miniature masterpiece castle goes under the hammer in Perth

Auctioneer Nick Burns with the scaled down fortress
Auctioneer Nick Burns with the scaled down fortress

A spectacular scaled-down Scottish castle could be besieged by bidders when it goes under the hammer next week.

The impressive 17-room doll’s house was hand-built by crafters to raise money for the Save The Children fund in the 1990s.

Now it is being offered for sale for the first time in almost three decades, after spending several years under wraps in a garage.

The property, named Bellis Castle by its creators at the Aboyne Craft Club, was picked up by auctioneers at Lindsay Burns and Company in Perth.

Director Nick Burns said: “It’s a really remarkable piece of work. We’ve seen a lot of doll’s houses in our line of business, but this is definitely one of the most impressive.

“The attention to detail is incredible.”

He said: “I understand it made around £10,000 at a charity auction back in 1997. The lady who bought it then passed it on to the current owner, who has had it in her garage for a number of years because it was too big for her house.

“She had a rethink about space during lockdown, and decided to get in touch with us to sell it on.”

It will be included in the auction house’s two-day antiques and general sale, which begins on October 1.

The castle, partly based on the Scottish Baronial-style Craigievar Castle near Aberdeen, was built over five years by a team of 40 people.

Craft club members approached local architect Michael Rasmussen, who came up with a design for the 17th century tower house.

Cabinetmaker Tom Ironside made the building to the scale of one inch to one foot, while professional interior designer Sylvia Lawson Johnston laid out the rooms.

The club even drafted in stained glass artist Michael Zappart to produce a feature window. However, he became so engrossed in the project, he designed, made and installed all 47 windows.

The fruits of their labour went on display at Ballindalloch Castle in the Highlands before it was auctioned off in the presence of Save the Children Patron Princess Anne in July 1997.

A booklet produced by the club at the time, explaining how the extensive project came together, revealed it wasn’t all plain sailing.

“The sheer size of the doll’s house was a problem as we realised it would not fit through an average doorway,” it noted.

The project was held-up while scale problems were resolved. The club wrote: “These delays were quite disheartening since by now more than two years had passed and there were times when we wondered if the doll’s house would ever be finished.

“Fortunately, we didn’t all hit a low point at the same time and if one of us was feeling depressed, there were usually one or two who remained cheerful to give encouragement.”