Owners of a seven-bedroom £625,000 mansion in North Lanarkshire are selling it off in a £5-a-ticket raffle.

Dullatur House, which comes with a swimming pool and an acre of land, has been on the market for several months and was previously advertised at offers over £825,000.

The property, near Cumbernauld, was used as a family home and as rented accommodation, appearing on websites including AirBnB.

However, after failing to secure a sale and with a change in personal circumstances, the owners decided to take a novel approach.

Owner Shamus Fitzsimmons, who worked in online sales, told STV News: "It was only a couple of weeks ago we came up with the idea. Hopefully, it will do something quite special for someone.

"The previous Friday the company I worked for, having left my previous job to go to them four months ago, decided to pull the plug.

"The house is a pride and joy but desperate times call for desperate measures. A guy down south did something similar and he's been quite successful.

"It's a special place, so hopefully we can pass it onto someone to walk straight into and just think, 'Wow'."

He also revealed the house would remain fully furnished for the new owners, with contents valued at an estimated £30,000-£40,000.

They hope to sell 250,000 tickets at £5 to cover the sale of the house, including fees.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday more than 10,000 tickets had been sold since the site went live at 7pm on Tuesday.

The closing date for the raffle is December 18 and the winner will be contacted shortly after.

According to their entry on AirBnB, the highly rated country mansion can sleep 14 guests and has a number of lounges.

Its west wing features a sauna, billiards room and double en-suite bedroom.

As well as area of land in front of the house, there is a heated swimming pool at the back.

The description also states: "When we bought Dullatur House it needed a lot of modernisation but that didn't scare us off. We upgraded, restored and painted away merrily and turned it into a great family home.

"Life presented our family with various personal challenges along the way, then I lost my job and, unable to find another suitable, I faced the reality of being unable to pay the mortgage.

"I've tried to sell the house through the traditional route using estate agents for the past 12 months, without success. Lots of people love the house, but we are fishing in a very small pool of people who can actually afford to buy it.

"Instead of the banks flexing their muscles and repossessing this lovely home we've decided to take matters into our own hands. We found other people running a similar competition; it's worked for them, so why not us?"