Ardlinnhe, Bearsden, Dunbartonshire

Ms Sandeman, scion of the venerable Port wine company must have been tough. When she died in 1978, she’d passed 100 years of age, but still climbed the stairs to the attic eyrie bedroom of the Arts and Crafts house built for her 60 years before in farmlands overlooking St Germains Loch in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. She eschewed central heating, instead warming herself before small open coal fires in three of the rooms. A maid shovelled coal into the grates; a gardener tended the huge Edwardian expanse of lawn and planting which enveloped the house, providing her with a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

No one wanted the house when it came on the market in the 1970s. It was too old and the garden too big. Its features were not then in vogue.  My aunt and uncle bought it from the estate for a song and modernised it for the times. I always loved the house as a child, and so when I was left it in the early noughties it was out with the 80s and in with the 1920s, as I restored the house back to its prime.

Key was letting the light flood in from windows framing the gardens planted on all four sides. I replaced the PVC windows with wooden sashes. Curtains by the acre went to the auction, and Marianna Kennedy’s exquisite linen roller blinds in vibrant green and restful ochre were fitted.

I reinstated the panelling, lifted the carpets, polished the original floorboards, and, because my homage to Ms Sandeman didn’t extend to shivering, I opened up the fireplaces, supplementing them with radiators and underfloor heating.

Deep roll top baths and a walk in shower came from C. P. Hart, and the kitchen was lined by crackle glazed tiles from Fired Earth. Portuguese-sourced floor tiles would have pleased the Oporto based Sandemans.

Glasgow’s auction houses are treasure troves and, with an almost blank canvas, Ardlinnhe has been furnished with period pieces. Clocks tick contentedly, a huge Glasgow Templeton Factory carpet left over from Ms Sandeman’s days has been restored and keeps out the winter chills, and brass and copper Aesthetic Movement lamps twinkle in the Scottish gloaming light.

Outside, the vast garden has been reborn under the supervision of London-based Spanish landscape architect, Luis Buitrago. Beyond expansive lawns, a half century of brambles were removed, revealing long hidden pathways. Majestic rhododendrons have been reshaped with their grafted Edwardian colours allowed to blaze in full glory. And in one corner, beneath a tall pine which has wrapped its roots round the hidden entrance, an underground second world war bomb shelter sits untouched with its 1940s wall lights and air duct still in place. A lifetime ago, Ms Sandeman and her maid would have sheltered here to escape the fury of Luftwaffe bombers as they pounded Scotland’s shipbuilding centres nearby.

Few now alive remember those fearsome nights. And they’re hard to imagine as one sits on Ardlinnhe’s peaceful terrace where no sound is louder than bird song and the occasional cry of the amorous foxes which can sometimes be seen lazing, glossy coated, on the furthest stretches of the lawn. Watch out too for dappled deer strolling through the reinvigorated woodland which marks the furthest reach of this secluded haven.

John Nicolson

Nicholas White

Homes

Interiors

High above the waters of nearby St Germains Loch lies Ardinnhe, a cossetting home that was built for one of the daughters of the Sandeman family – makers of Port and Sherry since 1790. The house has been diligently restored by its current owner, broadcaster and journalist John Nicolson who visited the house in the 80s when his aunt and uncle were intent on modernising it for the times. He takes us on a tour of this intoxicating enclave ...

A Polite Request

A Private View: an Arts and Crafts home with a rich and fruity heritage