A FUN-LOVING Scot is selling his mansion – complete with two massive man caves.
Roy Murray’s home features a cavernous basement playroom almost the size of the ground floor which is fitted out with a fully-stocked bar, billiards table, jukebox, 8ft by 4ft TV, and a dart board.
If Roy, 60, ever gets fed up with that he can walk to man cave number two – a building considerably bigger than a tennis court packed with vintage sports cars and a fully-equipped workshop.
The chartered surveyor from Banff, Aberdeenshire, is selling Canterbury House, after living there for 15 years, for offers over £950,000.
He and wife, Linda, 57, have decided it’s time to downsize. While their 23-year-old daughter, Fiona, has grown up, Roy is promising himself the new place will have an underground bar just as big.
The couple built the seven-bedroom Victorian-style home, set in eight acres of grounds – including a three-quarter-acre pond – and surrounded by woodland, in 2000.
The basement mancave – the same size as the sitting room, kitchen, dining room, hall and downstairs loo above – was the first part of the house to be completed.
The 100 square metre room boasts a 1895 full-size billiard table, darts board, massive television screen and jukebox. The bar features more than 100 single malt whiskies and a “surger” for serving up pints of Guiness as if they had been hand-pumped.
The walls are adorned with a plethora of sporting memorabilia, including a pair of Muhammad Ali Gloves and football shirts signed by Wayne Rooney and Pele.
The bar has hosted parties of more than 100 people celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, as well as live bands whose music is muffled by the 18-inch thick walls.
Roy said: “I still get a wee smirk on my face when people see the bar for the first time.
“It’s absolutely amazing. I can’t remember the precise moment I came up with the idea for it but we have loved it and have held so many events down there.
“We have kids come over to sing karaoke, I get all the lads over to watch football on the screen every weekend, we’ve had bands come over to practice – it’s just been wonderful.
“I’ve enjoyed it so much that when we design our next house I’m having another underground bar built that will be at least the same size.”
Linda, a retired pharmacist, enjoys the room just as much. She said: “It was actually the first room we built. It’s been a great thing, very much a party room and we have had so many people come over to enjoy it.”
The second man cave is a 270 square metre “shed” dedicated to the petrolhead in Roy, with room for around eight vehicles.
The selection includes a 1956 Cadillac, Porsche 9 11 Carrera, vintage Volkswagen van and even a penny farthing.
“I developed a love of cars at a young age and it just snowballed from there,” said Roy, whose workshop is bigger than the living room in most homes at 10.6m by 8.6m. There is also a gym and “leisure area”.
Estate agents Savills describe the basement as a “fantastic leisure facility…which has plenty of space for relaxing, watching films and playing music”. Of the “shed” they say it is currently home to “a beloved range of classic cars”.
The couple are looking to downsize and plan on building their next home half a mile down the road.
“We will definitely be sad to leave,” Roy said. “I’ll miss the bar…but life is like a book and the next chapter of ours will be the most exciting.”
