About Augill Castle: a restoration story

From wreck to awards: A decade in the life of a family castle

We bought Augill Castle as a wreck in the Autumn of 1997 but almost immediately everyone claimed us as their friends in the north. Since then we have embarked on an ongoing project to breath new life into the castle and restore it to some of its former glory.

The structure of the castle was sound but the internal fabric was in a shocking state of disrepair. But, 137 burst pipes, several thousand pounds of dry rot treatment, hundreds of metres of new wiring and plumbing later, our first three bedrooms were open for business in June 1998.

Since then the landmarks have been too numerous to mention here. But at the top of the list rank our children, born in 1998 and 2000. Holly the Labrador came to us in 1998 and Harry the supposedly short haired cat joined the family in 2007. We've lived in every habitable part of the castle, moved out completely for a year to a nearby farmhouse, got homesick and moved back.

As an on-going restoration, every room in the castle has been re-decorated at least once, the gardens have been rescued from beneath a tangle of weeds and debris, the pot holes in the drive are now mostly under control and most of the leaded windows don't leak for most of the time.

Recently, having managed for ten years with the domestic kitchen we inherited which we thought would do for eighteen months, we finally had a complete re-fit in October 2007 and more guest bedrooms were finished in May 2008, taking us to a total of eleven.

In December 2008 we refurbished the library and finally Simon had somewhere permanent to keep his collection of antique books. Doubling as the bar, it is a perfect place to sit and put the world to rights.

In Spring 2010 The Orangery and The Stable House were renovated to provide even more flexible family accommodation bringing us to fourteen bedrooms & suites.

Augill is a living home that will continue to evolve as we and our guests do and we will continue to enjoy sharing the story.