Ardfin is a country estate on the island of Jura,

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

, Scotland. It is situated at the southern tip of the island, between

Feolin Feolin (also known as Feolin Ferry) is a slipway on the west coast of Jura. provides a vehicle and passenger ferry service from Port Askaig on Islay Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The ...

and

Craighouse Craighouse () is the main settlement and capital of the Scottish Inner Hebridean island of Jura, in Argyll and Bute. In 1971 it had a population of 113. The village is situated on the sheltered east coast of the island at the southern end of S ...

. It includes Jura House which is a Category C listed building. The old house was extended by architect

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival, often referred ...

in 1838 for the laird Colin Campbell, with further extensions in 1878 by Alexander Ross and circa 1900 by Ronald Carswell. The next owners from 1938 were the Riley-Smith family, owners of

John Smith's Brewery John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England, produces beers including John Smith's, the highest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s. The majority of John Smith's sales are of the nitrogenated Extra Smooth ...

Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north-east of Leeds and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the lowest road crossing-point o ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

. The estate was sold in 2010 after the death of Tony Riley-Smith. The gardens are home to specimen plants from

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

, which were held in high regard by horticulturalists. The estate also includes of coastline and seven islands over a total of . In November 2010, the Ardfin Estate was purchased by Greg Coffey, an Australian

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

manager. Jura House was doubled in size and clad in Portuguese limestone. Coffey closed the gardens to the public, and disposed of all livestock from the estate's working farm. The closure of the gardens aroused concern among island residents and visitors. In June 2012 it emerged that Coffey was planning a golf course on part of the estate. The course was completed and due to open in spring 2019, but the opening was delayed, and then delayed further by the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020. Elsewhere on the estate, the former farm buildings were converted into a luxury hotel for the use of visiting golfers. A review made this comment about the private course: "Ardfin is intended to be an ultra exclusive investment, which will appeal to the golfer with the means to play this logistically difficult, but beautiful course".

The KLF on the Ardfin Estate

On 23 August 1994, a disused boathouse on the Ardfin Estate was the location of

K Foundation Burn a Million Quid ''K Foundation Burn a Million Quid'' was a work of performance art executed and filmed on 23 August 1994 in which the K Foundation, an art duo consisting of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, Burning money, burned £1 million (equivalent to £ millio ...

, an event in which art group

K Foundation The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, formerly of The KLF, in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF inc ...

burned an alleged million pounds in cash that they had earned as pop duo

The KLF The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band who originated in Liverpool and London in the late 1980s. Scottish people, Scottish musician Bill Drummond (alias Ki ...

. The event was filmed, and was screened on Jura exactly a year after the burning.

References

{{Authority control Villages on Jura, Scotland Country houses in Argyll and Bute Highland Estates Hamlets in Argyll and Bute