Aveland Lodge, Aveland Road, Callander, FK17

A charming four-bedroom bungalow tucked behind stone walls beside Callander Golf Course, set in over an acre of glorious, secluded garden — a rare find with room to dream.

Aveland Lodge is a rare and rather special find: a traditional four-bedroom bungalow, discreetly screened behind solid stone walls within Callander, and set within grounds extending to over an acre. It is the kind of property that rewards a slow approach - down a gravel drive that curves gracefully in front of the house, past mature planting, to a home that feels wonderfully private, yet is only a short stroll from the town. There is generous off-street parking for at least two cars, together with a wooden car port, garden shed and wood store, and a gate leading through to the gardens beyond.

The house is entered via a practical porch, doubling as a utility room with space for a washing machine and tumble dryer, which opens directly into the kitchen - arguably the heart of this home. Painted in a cheerful yellow, it is a room built for family life, with space for two generously proportioned sofas and a table large enough to gather a growing family around. A gas-fired Rayburn lends a warmth and cosiness that no radiator can quite replicate, while solid wood shaker units and gleaming black polished marble worktops, which catch and hold the light beautifully, bring a sense of quiet quality throughout. A double Belfast sink, five-ring gas hob, electric oven, space for a dishwasher, and a capacious larder cupboard complete a kitchen that is as practical as it is charming, all underpinned by hardwearing slate-effect vinyl flooring.

From the kitchen, one door leads through to the sitting room, while another opens to the hall and the remainder of the accommodation. The L-shaped hall continues the same sunny yellow theme, underfoot a cheerful tartan carpet that runs through into the sitting room beyond. To the right, a small glazed porch doubles neatly as a study, with its own door out to the front garden and a cupboard housing the electrics. Further along, a linen and airing cupboard houses the hot water tank, a genuinely useful spot for drying laundry on a Scottish afternoon.

To the rear of the house, and enjoying a lovely outlook over a rockery planted with mature acers, hydrangeas and a camellia, together with a small paved patio, the sitting room is a well-proportioned space with sliding doors onto the patio and a further window to the side. A polished marble gas fire provides an elegant focal point, and on a bright day the whole room is filled with light and the promise of the garden beyond.

Four bedrooms open from the hall: two generous doubles and two good-sized singles, one of the latter currently pressed into service as a home office. The second double is a peaceful room overlooking the front garden, while the principal bedroom, south-facing and enjoying wonderful garden views, benefits from a built-in wardrobe and an en suite bathroom fully refurbished in 2023 with striking black wall tiles, a generous mains shower and white sanitary ware. The family bathroom, meanwhile, retains a traditional white suite with a separate electric shower cubicle and ceramic wall tiling.

It is, however, the garden that truly sets Aveland Lodge apart. Extending to over an acre, it unfolds in four distinct chapters: a rockery close to the house; an area of lawn with raised beds and mature shrubs and trees; a ha-ha with stone steps descending to a broad, flat expanse of lawn; and, beyond that, a wilder tract of mature trees, rhododendrons and flowering shrubs, left deliberately untamed to shelter the deer, red squirrels and birdlife that call it home. For children, it is nothing short of a dream - the kind of garden that conjures a Swallows and Amazons childhood, with dens to build in the woods, football or croquet on the big lawn, and vegetables to grow in the raised beds, all within the complete safety of those old stone walls.

Aveland Lodge is a house full of warmth and character, and while it would benefit from a degree of updating throughout, this simply presents a wonderful opportunity for its next owners to bring their own ideas and stamp their mark on a home whose bones, and whose garden, are already something rather special.

What the Owners Love Most
The owners speak fondly of long summer evenings on the patio, watching the light catch the acers in the rockery, of croquet and football on the big lawn, and of falling asleep to owls calling from the wild garden beyond. Above all, they will miss the quiet privacy of a garden where deer wander past the windows and squirrels raid the bird feeders, a rare slice of Scottish countryside, yet moments from the golf course and the town.