Westerdunes, Abbotsford Road, North Berwick, Dirleton, East Lothian

Entry Name: Westerdunes, Abbotsford Road, North Berwick

Listing Name: North Berwick, Abbotsford Road, Westerdunes with Summer House, Garden Screen, Garden Sculpture, Terrace and Boundary Walls, Gates and Gatepiers

Listing Date: 5 February 1971

Category: A

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 331936

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB1380

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: Westerdunes
North Berwick, Abbotsford Road, Westerdunes

ID on this website: 200331936

Location: Dirleton

County: East Lothian

Electoral Ward: North Berwick Coastal

Parish: Dirleton

Traditional County: East Lothian

Tagged with: Hotel building

Description

J M Dick Peddie, 1908. 2-storey and attic Cotswold,
Elizabethan style manor house, 2-storey and attic with
cellar to main house and single storey side projections.
Squared and snecked Rattlebag stone with ashlar dressings.
Moulded chamfering to openings. Moulded
string courses above ground and 1st floor to N and S of
main house. Stone mullions and transoms.
N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: main house symmetrical with 3
gabled bays linked by parapet. Depressed arched
doorway in pilastered doorpiece at centre with recessed
porch. Tripartite above with flanking bipartites.
2-storey, multi-light canted windows to outer bays with
parapets above, bipartites in gable heads. Single storey
projection to right, recessed, with steeply pitched roof,
formerly billiard room; 2 small windows with depressed
arched lintels to left, 3 bipartites to right. Recessed
2-storey bays to left with gabled end bay, 4 bipartites at
ground with tripartite in gable and flanking small lights
to right. Flat-roofed single storey service court to outer
left with segmental doorway flanked by tripartites and
bipartites to right.
S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: 3 gabled bays to main house,
details similar to N elevation; tripartite window with
depressed arched doorway at centre, flanked by corniced
depressed arched doorway to right with Elizabethan stair
window above. Single storey billiard room with gable at
S and with tripartite window. Rectangular ashlar porch,
flat roofed, set in re-entrant angle. Lower bays to right
of main house with gabled outer bay, bipartites at ground
and 1st floor tripartites; irregular openings to recessed
bays. Single storey service projection to right, with
advanced outer gable.
E AND W ELEVATIONS: 2 gabled bays to main house with
single attic windows. Carved panel to gabled end of
billiard room projection to W gables. 2 gabled bays to
2-storey bays adjoining E gable and flat-roofed extension
at ground to left and shorter extension to right enclosing
service court.
Small-pane glazing pattern to sash and case windows.
Decorative lead gutterheads. Gablet coping to gables
with moulded, coped gablehead stacks to most gables.
Westmoreland slates.
INTERIOR: original features retained on subdivision. Fine
plasterwork ceilings. Panelling. Notable music room with
classical chimneypiece and Adamesque plaster ceiling.
SUMMER HOUSE: circular Doric colonnade on stepped
circular base, with dentil cornice and bearing leaded dome
with fir cone stone finial. Set in circular, balustraded
area with moulded ashlar coping and dies. Sited in SW of
garden on sloping site overlooking the Forth.
GARDEN SCREEN: tripartite. Moulded semi-circular arch to
ashlar overthrow of gateway with voussoir keystones,
concave parapet. Flanking fluted pilasters with carved
friezes and dentil cornices. Channelled piers to impose
height with consoles clasping pilasters above. Channelled
outer piers, with ball finials, linked to centre piers by
blocking course and ashlar panels with keystoned arched
openings. Decorate wrought-iron gate. Coped rubble
quadrants with outer piers as above.
GARDEN SEAT: semi-circular stone 4-seat bench with
Gryphon ends and central division, decoratively carved
back rests and acanthus details. Sited by garden
screen, echoing quadrant's curve, before flight of steps.
FOUNTAIN: ornate, vast classical stone capital with foliage
carving and cable moulding above, adapted as fountain.
Sited S of house as garden centrepiece. Possibly an
imported piece of ancient sculpture or replica thereof.
Balustraded terrace walls, stone flights of steps and ball
finialled dies.
GATEPIERS AND GATES: channelled gatepiers and outer piers
with ball finials to main driveway. Coped rubble
quadrants with gateway to left quadrant. Decorative
wrought-iron gates. Coped rubble boundary walls.

Statement of Interest

Strong indications of G Washington Browne involvement in

design, Dick Peddie's former partner. Forms 3rd of group of

3 Elizabethan Cotswold style mansions in Abbotsford Road;

(see Carlekemp and Bunkerhill) with closer link stylistically

to the former. Garden screen bears similar gateway to Gryphon

gate, Manderston, Duns, Berwickshire. Allegedly a pupil of

Lutyens and Jekyll landscaped the garden. Garden seat and

fountain possible from Duveen. Decorative wrought-ironwork

almost certainly by Thomas Hadden. Formerly listed as

Westerdunes Hotel.

External Links

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