Huge UK mansion with 25 bedrooms on sale for just £220k – but there’s one big catch

A huge grade II-listed with 25 sprawling bedrooms has been put up for sale by auction for just £220k. Formerly a luxury four-star hotel considered “one of the North East’s most opulent venues” Otterburn Hall is going under the hammer on March 27.

Built in 1870 as a country retreat for Lord James Murray, the neo-Elizabethan brick and stone-built property sits within a rural national park in an Area of Natural Outstanding Beauty (ANOB) and comes complete with 16 acres of woodland, lawns, a private fishing lake with fishing rights a short walk from Otterburn Castle. But the is in desperate need of repair with its crumbling walls now graffiti-ridden and windows smashed. Its buyer will need to fork out millions to restore the 25,000 sq ft property back to its former glory, hence why its price tag is £50,000 less than the cost of the average UK house.

The property was requisitioned for military use during WW2 becoming a military hospital. It was owned by a Christian education organisation and the YMCA before becoming a hotel that went bust and shut 13 years ago in 2012. Since then the country house has stood frozen in time.

Photographs show how the 154-year-old building is a dilapidated shell with the ceilings and floors stripped bare and broken doors can also be seen strewn across the former luxury hotel and wedding venue.

In many ways the manor house is an eerie time capsule with a half-collapsed piano in a drawing room and a smashed-up bath in one of the old hotel bedrooms.

Old clothes lie scattered across the floors, most likely abandoned by squatters who have also decorated the walls with a variety of swear words and obscene drawings. There are even reports the manor is now haunted.

Those thinking about taking on such a mamouth project are being warned that rescuing the property will cost millions followed by six-figure annual running costs.

“I expect you could spend £3 million doing it up,” Henry Pryor, a property buying agent who specialises in procuring rural properties for wealthy clients, said.

He added: “Once done it’s going to cost £75,000 to £100,000 a year to run. I doubt that the local council would let you demolish it because of the listing.”