Former home of Borders author Walter Scott on market for £1.25m

Ashiestiel House offers four reception rooms, seven bedrooms and seven bath or shower rooms, two secondary bedrooms, a one-bedroom gardener’s cottage, outbuildings, garage, trout fishing rights on the Tweed and more than 10 acres of land.

It was last marketed last summer as part of a 900-acre estate for offers over £5.5m.

It’s a grade-A listed stately home dating back to the 17th century.

Edinburgh-born Sir Walter, alive from 1771 to 1832, lived there from 1804 to 1812, writing The Lady of the Lake, Marmion, The Lay of the Last Minstrel and some of Waverley there.

So fond of the estate was he, according to some, that had he been able to buy it, he would not have moved to Abbotsford, near Tweedbank, in 1812.

The house was painted by Sir Walter’s friend JMW Turner in the 1830s as an illustration for Marmion.

Since 2011, Ashiestiel House has undergone a complete refurbishment project including rewiring, re-roofing of the main part of the house and installation of a new plumbing and new central heating system, double-glazed windows and four-oven electric Aga cooker.

The house is being marketed by estate agent Savills’ Edinburgh office, and Peter Strang Steel there said: “Ashiestiel House has an extraordinary history and an exceptionally beautiful setting.

“Quite apart from its status as a significant Scottish country house and its connections with one of our greatest writers, the superb quality of the refurbishment lavished upon it by the current owners, is quite outstanding.

“With 10 acres of grounds and the option to acquire further properties on the estate if desired, Ashiestiel is likely to cause a great deal of serious interest from far and wide.

“Scott’s eight years at Ashiestiel were among the happiest of his life. Indeed, the writer Theo Lang surmises that had Scott been able to purchase the property, ‘overhanging the Tweed and situated in a wild, pastoral country’, the later ambitious project of Abbotsford might never have been realised.”

Lang writes: “The study was both his dining and writing room, in which were composed the Lay of the Last Minstrel, The Lady of the Lake, and Marmion, as well as about a third of Waverley.”

He adds: “Much of Marmion was penned from the Shirra’s Knowe, a wooded knoll overlooking the Peel and Glenkinnon Burns, and the river walk towards Elibank Tower was Scott’s own favourite Sunday walk.”

For details, go to search.savills.com/property-detail/gbedrsedr160070 or call 0131 247 3738.