APRIL/MAY 2019CORROUR ESTATE (MODERN LODGE), JEROME STARKEY/ATHOLL ESTATE (MOOR),JOHN SHORT/DESIGN PICS/NG CREATIVE (CASTLE)
It’s a great way to throw a house
party, says Mark Merison of Merison
Sporting Ltd, based in Wiltshire
(merisonsporting.com). “You eat well,
live well, and are in the company of
good friends.” Activities typically
include fishing, shooting, and riding.
There is also Corrour Estates
(corrour.co.uk), a 57,000-acre prop-
erty set on the edge of Rannoch Moor,
offered by George Goldsmith Ltd, of
Exclusive Properties and Sporting
Estates in Scotland (georgegoldsmith
.com). The contemporary lodge fea-
tures a dining hall that seats 40, seven
en suite bedrooms, and a rooftop hot
tub. Rents start from $62,000 a week,
fully catered for up to 14 guests. Ruffles
and flourishes are happily tailored to
order. For example, Goldsmith can
arrange for a bagpipe player—or for
something more full-throated, a com-
plete pipe band with 20 pipers and five
drummers—to do honors. “A lovely
experience, especially after you’ve had
a whisky or two,” Goldsmith says.
Adherents of more traditional
style might prefer the 18th-century 12-
bedroom Knock House (benmoreestate
.co.uk), on the 17,000-acre Benmore
Estate on the Isle of Mull, listed by
Robert Rattray of Perth-based Sporting
Lets (sportinglets.co.uk). Among its
amenities: a 42-foot yacht that the
owner is swapping out for a 50-foot boat
in the coming season, tennis courts, and
a kennel with room for four dogs. It ispriced from around $15,000 to $26,000 a week. (There is some crossover on listings.
Goldsmith and Merison are also representative agents.)
One of the newest players in luxury letting is Edinburgh-based Reiver Travel
(reivertravel.com), owned by Ted Innes Ker. In his previous job for a similar com-
pany, Innes Ker, more formally known as Lord Edward Arthur Gerald Innes Ker,
second son of the 10th Duke of Roxburghe (“My brother will be the next duke. I’m
a lowly lord,” he demurs), he once arranged for a group of Texas businessmen to
spend three nights at Floors ( floorscastle.com), his family’s castle, with two days of
“driven” grouse shooting, helicopter hops to three premier golf courses, and a night
in a 15th-century castle before helicoptering back to Edinburgh. Cost for the week: a
tad over $250,000. Whims are accommodated. A young guest craving macaroni and
cheese got it—served on crested china. Before departing, guests receive a leather
bag with treats like haggis-flavored chocolates and cashmere socks.
A Scottish sojourn has been considered downright chic ever since Prince Albert
bought Balmoral Castle in the Aberdeenshire Highlands for Queen Victoria in- Current owner Queen Elizabeth II, who carries on the family tradition and
spends summers there, can sometimes be spotted motoring to Sunday services at
Crathie Kirk, the nearby parish church. And if the lessee wishes to consummate
the Highland romance by buying an estate? No problem. George Goldsmith and
Robert Rattray can arrange that as well.
The granite, steel, and glass
lodge on Corrour Estates
(opposite) was designed by
award-winning architect
Moshe Safdie. On manors such
as this, as well as the Atholl
Estates (left) and Floors Castle
(below), pursuits commonly
include pheasant, grouse,
or partridge shoots; salmon
fishing; and stalking (shooting
stags marked for culling).