Mansion house for sale from £1: Gothic-style home goes to auction without a reserve price on the east coast of Scotland

A dilapidated French Gothic-style mansion on the east coast of Scotland is set to go under the hammer with a £1 guide price – and without a reserve.

Built in the late 19th century as a grand private home for a mill-owning family, The Elms later became a hotel. It was requisitioned by the War Office during the Second World War and went on to operate as a children’s home.

But, with a guide price of just £1 for such a grandiose estate, here comes the catch: the two-storey property hasn’t been used for 28 years. It has been on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland for almost 20 years and the National Property Auctions listing describes its condition as “poor”.

To avoid an expensive mistake, buyers at auction are always strongly advised to visit a property first and familiarise themselves with what they will be bidding for, as far as possible.

The next owner of The Elms, however, will not be able to do this: viewings aren’t possible due to the state of disrepair and the agents aren’t allowed anywhere near the interiors to photograph them.

So, is this the project of a lifetime for a daring renovator, or a storage seeker's dream come true? Perhaps it could be both.

Due to close at 11am on July 17, online auction bids had reached £92,000 at the time of writing. After decades of neglect, it seems The Elms will have a new owner within weeks.

Angus council planning records show that permission, now lapsed, was granted to convert The Elms into six flats and build five detached houses in the grounds. The Buildings at Risk Register details some of the damage the empty house has suffered since the application was made.

In 2004, the Angus Courier reported that period stained-glass windows, marble fireplaces and hand-painted mahogany ceiling panels had been removed from The Elms. Before that, lead was stripped from roofs, letting in the rain.

Over the years, there have been questions about ownership. Angus council served several urgent works orders – none of which, it appears, got a response. The title of the property was transferred to a company with a registered address in the British Virgin Islands, then in 2018 ownership was changed to a non-UK registered company. The Elms is now listed for sale with National Property Auctions.

The mansion stands in Cairnie Road in Arbroath, the largest town in the Angus district, around 16 miles north-east of Dundee and 45 miles south-west of Aberdeen.

“This is a rare opportunity for a developer to pick up an A-listed building and restore it into its former glory,” said National Property Auctions managing director, Mandi Cooper.