Hidden away in a band of woodland adjacent to the main road running through Glen Isla, in Angus, are the remains of arguably one of Scotland’s least attractive mansions. Despite demolition and a fire, the block-like structure stands defiant although, concealed within trees, is seldom seen by visitors to the glen.
Bellaty Lodge (click here for an image of the house) was constructed for the Dowager Lady Kinloch in 1904 after she bought 300 acres of land in the glen. She lived there for only a decade, vacating the property in 1916 and moving to Alyth. The contents of the house were sold by public auction in May of that year, and thereafter it was let unfurnished before acquiring new owners, first a Mr R M Melville, solicitor, and then Major Arthur P Nicol and his wife Daisy, who lived there for a time with their daughter Anne. However, in later years, it appears to have been mainly rented out to tenants during the shooting and fishing seasons, complete with linen and maids! Newspaper adverts offered an ‘exceedingly’ comfortable country house with unlimited trout fishing nearby and 350 acres of shooting.
Shrouded in woodland, the two-storey rectangular block with flat roof had five public rooms, seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, three maids’ rooms, a kitchen, and a garage. With the front door and French windows on the northern elevation enjoying fine views over the river, at the rear there was a three-storey tower which appears to have served no other purpose than being decorative. And even that is questionable given the dubious architectural merit of the structure.
A coating of white render concealed some pretty shoddy construction work, the walls built of a mix of rough stone and broken bricks. Efforts to inject some finesse through brick courses above the first and second-floor windows had limited success. The property failed to attract sufficient tenants to make it pay and its days were numbered.
After a lifespan of only half a century, the house was bought by Dundee demolition specialists Charles Brand in August 1954 and it was dismantled, floorboards, doors, fireplaces and other woodwork salvaged and sold on, leaving behind a gutted shell that appears to have been used for agricultural storage thereafter. In 1986, fire swept through the building which, at that point, was storing 200 tons of hay. Local newspaper reports recount that firefighters from four local stations spent around 18 hours extinguishing the blaze.
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This article is an extract from the book Abandoned Angus, available as a paperback or ebook from Amazon.
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