Ardfin facts for kids
Ardfin is a small village and a large country estate on the island of Jura in Scotland. Jura is part of the Inner Hebrides islands. Ardfin is located at the very southern tip of Jura, between the areas of Feolin and Craighouse.
The estate includes a building called Jura House. This house has a long history. It was made bigger in 1838 by an architect named William Burn. Later, it was extended again in 1878 by Alexander Ross and around 1900 by Ronald Carswell. From 1938, the estate was owned by the Riley-Smith family. They owned John Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. The estate was sold in 2010 after Tony Riley-Smith passed away.
Ardfin is famous for its beautiful gardens. These gardens are home to special plants from Australasia. Plant experts thought very highly of these gardens. The estate also has about 16 kilometres (10 mi) of coastline. In total, it covers about 4,692.3 hectares (11,595 acres) of land and includes seven small islands.
New Owners and Changes at Ardfin
In November 2010, the Ardfin Estate was bought by Greg Coffey. He is an Australian hedge fund manager. A hedge fund is a type of investment fund. After buying the estate, Mr. Coffey made many changes.
Jura House was made twice as big. It was covered with special stone from Portugal. Mr. Coffey also closed the gardens to the public. He sold all the animals from the estate's working farm. Closing the gardens worried many people who lived on Jura and visitors to the island.
In June 2012, it became known that Mr. Coffey was planning to build a golf course. This course would be on part of the estate. The golf course was finished and was supposed to open in spring 2019. However, the opening was delayed. Then, it was delayed even more because of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Other buildings on the estate were also changed. The old farm buildings were turned into a fancy hotel. This hotel is for golfers who come to play on the new course. People have said that the Ardfin golf course is meant to be very exclusive. This means it is for golfers who can afford to play on this beautiful but hard-to-reach course.
The KLF's Event at Ardfin Estate
On August 23, 1994, something unusual happened at Ardfin. A group called K Foundation used an old boathouse on the estate. They burned one million pounds in cash there. This money was earned by the group when they were a pop duo called The KLF.
This event was filmed. The film was shown on Jura exactly one year after the money was burned. It was a very famous and talked-about art event.
