A place shaped by six centuries, cared for by one family.
Jennifer & James
We are James and Jennifer. We became the estate's custodians in 2023, and we live and work here with our family, restoring the place year by year.
Powis is not operated from a distance - the people who welcome you are the people who stacked the wood, planted the garden and know why every room is arranged the way it is.​
Restored slowly, and on purpose.
Since 2023 the estate has gained a natural spring-fed swimming lake, a solar field that powers the estate on bright days, borehole and spring water, new woodland paths and carefully renewed interiors.
We have a lot more to do. Our goal is to ensure the estate lives on for hundreds more years. We will slowly and sensitively modernise where appropriate and restore.
The aim has never been perfection - it is character, comfort and a landscape that gets healthier every year. Guests notice the difference between somewhere that is operated and somewhere that is cared for.
Six centuries in six chapters
1480. Alexander Kalender, held the land in feu-ferme from the Crown in 1480.
​
1629. The Stirling family - one of Scotland's oldest names - takes ownership of the Powis land from the Callanders.
1746. As the Battle of Culloden ends the Jacobite cause, masons lay the first stones of the present house.
1800. The Buchanan family acquires Powis and carries it through Victorian Scotland and into the modern age.
1949. The house is bought by five women known locally as the Powis House Ladies — teachers, nurses and administrators who offer refuge to soldiers and give the house a generous, practical life as Britain rebuilds.
2023. We become its latest custodians. We don't hold the place lightly, knowing it will outlast us too.
The Estate today
Today the estate hosts three kinds of time well spent: holidays in the cottages and huts (Stays), wellness and creative retreats led by established hosts (Retreats), and planning offsites for founder-led leadership teams (Offsites).
Finding us
Ten minutes from Stirling, thirty-five from Edinburgh Airport, under an hour from Edinburgh and Glasgow - yet still hidden, still secluded