Framed oils of ancestors look down from walls in ‘Red Earth’ by Farrow & Ball in the drawing room, which pick up on the Etsy Turkish kilim covering the ottoman. One sofa is upholstered in Korla’s ‘Peaks’ linen mix in teal, while the green sofas are in Romo’s spruce ‘Linara’ cotton linen. Curtains in ‘Rocokoko’ cotton from Malabar contrast with blinds in Korla’s ‘Peaks’.
Christopher Horwood
Working with Robbie McDowall and Henry Dempsey of Harry Taylor & Company in Perth, the restoration project began to bring the house into the 21st century. As with the land, sustainability was Jane’s priority: Tulliemet now has a biomass heating system, and Zypho systems were installed in order to recycle the heat generated by hot water from showers.
‘My father is an architect and I grew up preferring symmetry, good proportions and strong architectural bones, not cover-ups,’ explains Jane, who studied history and the history of art at the University of Edinburgh. Strong colours inspired by the landscape and seasons determined the house’s furnishings. ‘They match the changing hues of the woodland – from the fresh larch greens of spring to the autumnal shades of the copper beech, bronze bracken and the colours of falling leaves.’ Some furniture was retrieved from the attics at Blair Castle – home to the Atholl family for more than seven centuries – where Jane’s uncle, the Duke of Atholl, lived.
A Golden Eagle print, from Elisabeth Frink’s Birds of Prey series hangs over a display of favourite teapots. The kitchen cabinets are by DIY Kitchens in Yorkshire.
Christopher Horwood
For much of the year, Tulliemet is rented out for short-term lets. One famous visitor was Beatrix Potter. Time spent in the gardens at Eastwood House on the estate, which her parents rented, inspired in 1893 for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Today the walled garden at Tulliemet would need more than one irascible Mr McGregor to maintain the fertility of the soil and control not only rabbits but also nature more broadly.
Jane is a supporter of the regenerative agriculture festival Groundswell. Prince William addressed over 10,000 visitors at this year’s event, stressing the importance of soil regeneration in food production. For Jane, inheriting a Scottish estate has been a call to stewardship. Tulliemet deserves a long-term vision, based on respect for the landscape and its history: a reminder that a thriving estate has to be built from the ground up.
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