Historic Badenoch home of James 'Ossian' Macpherson is put up for sale
The Strathy can confirm today that Balavil Estate by Kingussie is on the market.
The owners, sparkling English wine millionaires Eric and Hannah Heerema, are inviting offers for the 6,800-acre estate.
The grand house was initially created by James Macpherson (1736-1796), the Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician known for the Ossian cycle of epic poems which he claimed to have discovered and translated.
A spokesperson for the estate said: “Balavil Estate is one of the most exceptional mixed sporting estates in the Scottish Highlands.
“The current owners have undertaken significant improvement and investment over the past eight years and are now offering the estate for sale.”
A friend of the Heerema family told the Strathy: “Hannah and Eric have loved being the custodians of Balavil for eight happy years.
"It is a beautiful part of Scotland that captured their hearts and will forever remain a very special place to them both.
“Any Highland estate of this scale requires close attention.
"After much consideration, and with a young family based in the south of England, they feel that they can no longer devote the time and energy that Balavil deserves.
"They have therefore, reluctantly, taken the decision to sell.”
The couple had, among other things, long held the ambition to create a House of Bruar-style visitor attraction by the A9 but were frustrated by the lack of progress on the dualling of the road.
Neighbour Allan Macpherson-Fletcher, who sold the estate to the Heeremas and who still lives close by, told the Strathy: "We heard this afternoon from Hannah who very kindly rang us to put us in the picture.
"I can say that they invested a lot of money in their dream Highland estate, on the pedigree herd and the cottages, the shooting, walled garden and so on but their children are at school down by their Nyetimber Vineyard in West Sussex and it's obviously more practical for them to spend their time there with them.
"We've not seen them up here now for a long time and the big house is still a very long way from habitable.
"In fact, pictures we have seen show that the contractors have taken everything back to the stonework inside and there is obviously a long way to go yet.
"The team are still to be seen during the weeks at work but we don't know just what the state of play is."
The agent handling the sale was not able to give the Strathy an asking price, while a spokesperson for the Heeremas simply confirmed offers are being invited.
It is understood that Mr Macpherson-Fletcher had sold the estate for some £5 million and since then it is estimated that perhaps three times that figure have been spent on maintaining the property.
