Contents of mansion sold off amid a bitter feud between family of Scots aristocrat and his loyal gamekeeper

Published: 19:42, 10 July 2026 | Updated: 19:43, 10 July 2026 It was a treasure trove of items from the home which became the centre of a bitter feud between the family of a late eccentric aristocrat and his loyal gamekeeper. And now the contents of the historic Monreith House have gone under the hammer, fetching more than £750,000 at auction. Sir Michael Maxwell left a third of the £2million ancestral home to his gamekeeper, sparking an inheritance battle with his surviving family who were left with the rest. For years the two sides have fought over the future of the sprawling 328-acre estate near Port William in Wigtownshire. But this week an impressive array of items from within the home have been sold off for £765,543. Spanning old master paintings, historic furniture, works of art and sculpture, arms and armour, carpets and personal family possessions, the items had been collected through the generations. Charlie Thomas, of auction house Bonhams, said: ‘Monreith House offered collectors a rare opportunity to acquire objects that had evolved organically within one family collection over generations. ‘From pieces connected to significant historical moments to deeply personal family possessions, the collection resonated with bidders across multiple categories, reflecting both its quality and exceptional coherence.’ Among the standout results from the two-day sale in Edinburgh was the Mughal gem-set jade sheep head dagger hilt from North India, dating to the 18th or 19th century, which achieved £48,640, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate of £10,000-15,000. Monreith House, a 15-bed mansion in Wigtownshire, was commissioned in 1791 Charlotte and Katharine Helmore (right) with Sir Michael Maxwell Meanwhile Robert Harvie’s portrait of Sir William Maxwell, the third Barron of Monreith who lived between 1715 to 1771, sold for £29,440. And among the flurry of sales, another notable highlight was a rare mid-16th century two-handed sword. It was reputed to have been wielded by Lord Maxwell at the Battle of Dryfe Sands, the final and decisive clash in the century- long feud between Clan Maxwell and Clan Johnstone. The Johnstones emerged victorious, with the sword said to have been taken as a trophy before being returned to the family in the 1830s. It sold for £28,160, more than three times its estimate. Earlier this year The Mail on Sunday revealed the feud between Sir Michael’s family and the gamekeeper. The mansion's Myrton Castle Suite, a George III carved giltwood suite to include a pair of sofas and a pair of armchairs Gamekeeper Daniel Rippon, in red shirt, and the Helmore sisters Sir Michael’s two nieces, twin sisters Katharine and Charlotte Helmore, were angrily disputing Daniel Rippon’s place in the will. The contents went under the hammer as the pair could not afford to buy out Mr Rippon of his share of the estate. At the time Katharine, 42, said: ‘We offered Daniel Rippon a separate deal in the hope we could preserve the house and the estate for both our family and the region over future generations, but he’s not interested and we have no control over the sale, despite it being our inheritance. No one is listening to us. We are furious’ Monreith House has been in the Maxwell family since 1791 and has listed category A status for its architectural and historical importance. Set in mature woodland, it has 15 bedrooms and ten reception rooms while the estate includes two cottages. Sir Michael was the nephew of Gavin Maxwell, the author of Ring of Bright Water which is a literary classic about his life in Glenelg in the Highlands. In 2011, aged 67, he appeared on Channel 4’s Country House Rescue to talk about maintaining his estate and how he hoped to marry after a lifetime of being single. But he never married and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2013. He died in 2021, aged 78.