The Glencripesdale Estate is a country estate situated along the south side of

Loch Sunart Loch Sunart (Scottish Gaelic ) is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Sunart is bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morvern district. At long, it is the longest sea loch in the Highlan ...

, a

sea loch ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spel ...

in the west

highlands of Scotland The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. Today, the Isle of

Càrna Carna or Càrna is an island in Loch Sunart, an arm of the sea, close to the Ardnamurchan peninsula, on the west coast of Scotland. Geography Carna lies wedged across the mouth of Loch Teacuis in the middle of Loch Sunart, forming two narro ...

is the last remaining part of a once huge acre deer forest, river and

grousemoor Driven grouse shooting is the hunting of the red grouse, a field sport of the United Kingdom. The grouse-shooting season extends from 12 August, often called the " Glorious Twelfth", to 10 December each year. Large numbers of grouse are driven to ...

bought in 1870 by the three Newton brothers, T. H. Goodwin, William III, and Canon Horace Newton of Barrells Hall and

Holmwood, Redditch Holmwood House in Redditch, Worcestershire, is a country by the famed Victorian architect Temple Lushington Moore, who was a vague relative of the Newton family. Rev Canon Newton was brother of Goodwin Newton of Barrells Hall, where Canon New ...

, ancestors of the current family, who are also of direct

Milward's Needles Henry Milward & Sons is an English manufacturer of sewing needles based in Redditch. Henry Milward and Sons and its employees boast over a quarter of a millennium making needles. History The earliest reference to the Milward family in connect ...

descent.

History

The Glencripesdale Estate once stretched for along the entire south side of Loch Sunart, and the entire east side of Loch Teacuis. The estate comprised the estates of Glencripesdale, Liddesdale and Laudale (16,000 acres) and also Rahoy and Kinlochteacus (10,000 acres). The total estate measured , with waterside access to over of coastline. The highlight of the Estate was Glencripesdale House/Castle which was the mansion the Newton brothers built to house their family and staff. During the three main months of Summer when the family were in occupation over 100 staff were employed locally running the estate covering its sporting side, Yachts and land and property management. In 1904 the estate had 9,000 sheep grazing its land, and had 4 separate working farms, with 2,500 deer in the forest. In the 1950s the Estate was put up for sale by the family, and sold for a distressed low price due to its vast size and the general worldwide economic downturn. After World War II, a new owner bought the House, and stripped its lead off the roof, leaving the buildings shell exposed, because he was able to sell the lead for more than he had bought the property for, according to local legend. The Isle of

at the mouth of Loch Sunart was bought back by the family from the sale, and still remains within the family as a monument to the once great estate. The last part of the Glencripesdale estate to be sold by the family was the Rahoy estate by Carna and Loch Teacus which was sold to the Colville's in the mid 1960s. The estate with the shell of the house was sold to the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

next, which slowly planted up the woodland with conifers and then sold off the estate in chunks throughout the 1990s. The ruins still remain on the original site, however the land has become very overgrown.

References

{{coord, 56.668, -5.807, display=title, region:GB_scale:20000 Morvern Highland Estates