As reported in the Press & Journal, 24 March 2025:
Rickety farmhouse waylays tycoon’s Abergeldie Estate plans
By Ben Hendry
Press & Journal, 24 March 2025
The owner of Abergeldie Estate’s housing plans have been waylaid as permission is now being sought to demolish a historic Bovaglie farmhouse.
Bovaglie farmhouse surprise waylays Abergeldie Estate plans:
The millionaire tycoon who bought Abergeldie Estate has been forced to return to the drawing board again in his bid to create a new home at the historic Bovaglie site.
Alastair Storey spent £23m on the expanse with the aim of turning it into an “adventure tourism” mecca, and is on a mission to transform its various crumbling farm buildings into habitable accommodation.
Abergeldie Estate’s reinvention made the front page of the P&J. But Mr Storey insisted that the first step in all of this would be to build his own mansion to live in at the site.
Following a few ups and downs with planning officials, he secured permission to demolish an old steading and build his dream home there last year.
At the same time, Mr Storey hoped to turn the adjacent farmhouse into a separate home for visiting family and friends.
The same engineering firm who checked out the Clatt cottage elsewhere in this week’s round-up was summoned to Royal Deeside to inspect the farmhouse. They explain that a previous survey in 2023, carried out when the building was still largely intact, indicated that it was indeed suitable for refurbishment.
Only now, with the original structure now exposed, have some “areas of concern” cropped up. A recent inspection found that “significant lengths” of the walls had already collapsed or would need taken down. And the ground floor walls are “in poor condition and extremely fragile”.
All of this means the original plans to save the structure during the works would not, in their opinion, be possible. Boss Andrew Ramsay concludes: “I would recommend that the walls that remain are safely taken down and the building is replaced with a new dwelling.”
Aberdeenshire Council is now being asked to sign off on its demolition.
So what are the new plans for crumbling Bovaglie farmhouse? Blueprints reveal how the proposed replacement home would look. The new home would have a spacious front room, kitchen, dining room and lounge along with four bedrooms. These blueprints show the layout of the proposed home. The plans are yet to be decided by the local authority.