The Telegraph

Houses, just like people, sometimes lie about their past. Usually, the fibbing is obvious and no one is fooled. It takes more than a portico and carriage lamps to give a new-built "executive home" the dignity of age. But, just occasionally, the pretence is so superb that even experts can be fooled. Twenty miles to the west of Glasgow, in rolling countryside above the River Clyde, lies one of Scotland's most convincing architectural deceptions. On the Formakin estate, time appears to be forever frozen in some baronial Scots idyll. There is a mansion set in splendid grounds, entrance lodges and a mill, all seemingly immaculate examples of 17th-century design.