The perfect playground
The Royal Family knows better than anyone that a sporting estate is essentially a catalyst for a good party. “There should be so much variety of fun and sport that your friends are always desperate for an invitation,” says Jonathan Kennedy of CKD Property Advisers (ckd.co.uk). Exactly what makes an estate desirable is subjective, however; even Her Majesty’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk – which offers wild pheasants, grey partridges, rabbiting, ferreting and trout fishing – and Balmoral in Aberdeen-shire – where there are 50,000 acres of grouse moors, stalking hills and salmon fishing – aren’t ‘perfect’ sporting estates. Such a thing simply doesn’t exist, maintains sporting estate expert George Goldsmith, who has some of the country’s finest estates on his books (georgegoldsmith.com). “It’s like trying to find the perfect home – if you cover off three things on your wish list, you’ve done pretty well. Any more than that and you’ve nailed it.”
There are, however, a few fundamental attributes shared by Britain’s most revered estates, whether they’re a pure sporting estate with a simple lodge or a residential estate with a stately home. “Topography is always key,” explains property finder Mark Lawson of the Buying Solution (), who sources high value residential and rural estates. “Plunging valleys and rolling countryside). “Remoteness spooks most people but you just want it to be you, your friends and your gun,” he says.
