Kinross House

Kinross House on Loch Leven in east-central Scotland has been awarded the 2013 Restoration Award by Britain's Historic Houses Association. 

According to the association, the house was in bad shape when the current owner, Mr Donald Fothergill, acquired the property in 2011. Richard Compton, President of the Historic Houses Association, said:

The major restoration programme which has been undertaken over the past two years at Kinross has saved and revitalised this hugely important house from deterioration and possible future loss. The scale of the renovation is magnificent, and the house can now be seen by more people than perhaps ever in its long history - it is terrific to see the house coming back to life and being filled once again. Active use of the house is already having a beneficial effect on employment and incomes in the surrounding area.

Recent pictures certainly make the house look magnificent.

The house was built beginning in 1685 by Sir William Bruce, Charles II's favorite architect, to be his own home. Bruce also designed the gardens. The whole ensemble is focused on a "point of interest," 13th-century Loch Leven castle, once fought over by Edward I, Robert Bruce, William Wallace, and other medieval worthies. Nice to have a genuine castle in the yard; saves the trouble of building a folly.

Daniel Defoe called Kinross House "the most beautiful and regular house in Scotland," which is an interesting glimpse into the neoclassical soul; for a romantic like me, nothing "most regular" could also be "most beautiful." 

Still, it is an amazing house, and all credit to is owner for saving it. I won't even ask how Fothergill made his money, since an act like this goes some distance toward redeeming the scurviest of financial shenanigans. Heck, let's give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume he's honest. This restoration has put me in a generous mood.