A new chapter awaits in the Scottish Borders
The de la Heys had always wanted to live in the Scottish Borders. This handsome six-bedroom house was a dream come true. Now, Mertoun Glebe needs a new owner to fall for its charms
The Scottish Borders are a true heartland for William and Rosamund de la Hey. Hailing from rural Somerset and Ayrshire respectively, they met at a party in the Borders. So, just over 21 years ago, married and with a new and growing family, it was the rolling landscape around the River Tweed that called them to move from London.
“As soon as we walked into the garden we knew,” says Rosamund. “I really think houses have a heart and when it’s the right one, there’s a feeling you get.” Mertoun Glebe, less than an hour from Edinburgh and within easy reach of the East Coast mainline, yet tucked away in the quiet hamlet of Clintmains near St Boswells, was the one.
Mertoun Glebe: a six bedroom Georgian house
A Georgian house “at core”, the listed former manse forms a C-shape around a courtyard, with a Victorian-era study and 1920s-era attic rooms. The evolution of the six-bedroom house continued gently under the couple’s ownership with the creation of a master suite with dressing room and en suite, demolition of a 1970s conservatory to create an airy sunroom, renovation of a former coach house into a multi-purpose studio and office space onto the courtyard, and merging two rooms to make a larger kitchen.
The most striking addition was the transformation of a tired three-door garage into a contemporary summer house facing the main house across a Piet Oudolf-inspired meadow. “In the summer until about mid-September we turn off the Aga and apart from breakfast, everything happens here,” says William. The triple-glazed doors open onto the garden, making it adaptable to the vagaries of the Scottish weather, and the solar-panelled roof makes the property energy neutral in the summer.
“I love curling up with a book in here,” says Rosamund, for whom books play a central role. Her pre-Borders career was bookended by the arrival of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series on her desk, and the move allowed her to realise, together with William, the ambition of running a bookstore and delicatessen, The Mainstreet Trading Company in nearby St Boswells.
The couple’s three children are now adults and that has prompted their move. “It’s going to be a very big wrench to leave what has been the most wonderful family house for us,” says Rosamund. “It’s been fully lived in and it’s time for someone else to see it through its next evolution.”
