Scotland’s most expensive home back on the market… for £8m

It was built on the ruins of a favoured retreat for Mary, Queen of Scots and boasts its own stables, pub and helipad.

Now Scotland’s most expensive home – Seton Castle – has been put back on the market for offers over £8 million.

Designed by classical architect Robert Adam, the Georgian house and estate in Longniddry, East Lothian, was previously owned by the Wemyss family for more than a century.

It stands on the site of Seton Palace, the historical seat of the Earls of Winton, where Mary is known to have stayed.

The palace fell into 75 years of neglect and was eventually demolished in 1789 and replaced with Seton Castle.

It was extensively refurbished by an Edinburgh businessman who put it on the market for £15 million in the mid-2000s, hoping to attract an overseas buyer.

The asking price was cut to a still record sum of £5 million after a few years, when it was bought by web tycoons Steve Leach and his wife Heather Luscombe.

The couple, who had recently sold their search engine firm for £41 million, carried out costly renovation work over the next decade before putting it on the market in 2019 to move abroad.

Speaking at the time, Mr Leach told the BBC: ‘Even after 12 years there, it still takes our breath away to drive into the courtyard and remember we are retracing the steps of Mary, Queen of Scots.’ It was bought by property investor and hospitality entrepreneur David Fam for £8 million in 2022 but is now back on the market.

It features a variety of secret staircases and hidden doors, turrets and parapets, as well as a stable, 10,000-bottle wine cellar, billiard room, gym and cinema.

James Whitson, director of residential sales at Rettie Edinburgh, said: ‘This really is a Robert Adam masterpiece, that has been restored to the finest calibre, to create a superb family home.

‘I have memories as a child from when I was 10 years old, attending Boxing Day lunches there and I never thought that in my later life and property career I would have the honour of selling this magnificent castle three times.’