House saved for nation opens its doors

PRINCE Charles beamed with pride yesterday as he joined Alex Salmond, the First Minister, at the unveiling of a stunning stately home in Scotland he has helped to preserve for the nation.

The prince was key in helping to preserve Dumfries House in East Ayrshire, which will now open to the public for the first time in 250 years. The Georgian home, formerly owned by the Bute family, has been preserved as it was when built by the Adam brothers in 1759.

It is the house for which Thomas Chippendale crafted some of his most daring and magnificent creations – and for which the first Axminster carpet was fashioned. Yet most of it had remained for centuries as the nation's best-kept heritage secret.

The mansion had been on the market for around £25 million but was saved at the 11th hour by the Prince of Wales, who led a consortium of charities and the Scottish Government to make the purchase last summer.

Charles helped arrange a £45 million deal to buy the 18th- century house and its collection of Chippendale furniture. As he unveiled the plaque to open the house, Charles said he hoped it would benefit the local area.

He said: "What an exciting day it is, as far as I am concerned and I think quite a lot of others, that finally we've managed to open this remarkable house.

"We owe a huge debt of gratitude to a very large number of people who have helped make all this possible and I did want to say just how immensely appreciative I am of East Ayrshire Council, who have been so wonderful and so incredibly supportive.

"And I pray that as a result of Dumfries House and what we might be able to do here it will indeed help provide a catalyst for the regeneration of this remarkable area."

Mr Salmond said: "The benefits of its opening will be experienced far wider than Cumnock, Ayrshire and the south-west. An internationally-acclaimed house is now open to Scotland and visitors from around the world."

The house was last inhabited by Eileen, the dowager Marchioness of Bute who died in 1993. Major work needed to be done to make it suitable for visitors after more than two centuries in private hands.

Restoration work on the A-listed property began in January and has been carried out at breakneck speed to ensure it was ready to open this week.

The former owner, Johnny Dunbar, Marquess of Bute, who put the house on the market and is now one of the trustees, was also at the opening.

The 50-year-old Marquess, dressed in a suit of Stuart of Bute tartan, said:

"The house is looking fantastic and the objectives of the trust are really just what the local economy needs."

Among those who met the prince yesterday was David Gemmell, who was caretaker for 11 years while the house was empty. He said: "Now it's open, it's really tremendous.

What we want is for people to come and look at the house and make the house come alive again."