Description

William Burn, 1830, remodelling of earlier tower house to give substantial Baronial mansion. 2- and 3-storey with basement

and attic. Surrounding burn regularised to form pseudo-moat,

and oversailed by arched culvert in 1830 at W. Variety of squared

and snecked pink sandstone with grey ashlar dressings.

Crowstepped gables.

W (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: in 2 blocks, 3, 3-storey

crowstepped bays to right raised on earlier foundations.

Jacobean doorway with strapworked pilasters and pediment

obelisk finials; regular fenestration. Turret corbelled

from 1st floor level, in re-entrant angle with left block rising

above wallhead with candle snuffer roof. Left block of 2,

2-storey bays slightly advanced scrolled pedimented heads to

1st floor windows.

E ELEVATION: set at obtuse angle about stair turret at centre

irregular openings. 3-storey range to left with pedimented

dormerheads to 2nd floor windows flanking wide wallhead stack.

2-storey and basement range to right with varied openings.

S ELEVATION: 2 wide, 3-storey bays; left bay crowstepped gabled

with attic window, right bay with inserted tripartite French

windows with flight of semi-circular steps; pedimented

dormerhead to 2nd floor window.

N ELEVATION: irregular arrangement; gabled bay advanced to outer

left with projecting stack, circular tower at centre set deeply

into wall, flanked to outer right by full-height canted bay with tripartite windows at centre to each floor.

12-pane glazing pattern to sash and case windows, some small-pane

Grey slates to gabled and candlesnuffer tower roofs; tall,

copied diamond stacks, set on ashlar bases, linked and

clustered.

INTERIOR: cellar below basement awaits excavation to determine

more about earlier house. Basement, with walls 12' thick,

includes vaulted bake-house with segmentally arched ovens and

flagged floor. Under W drive, linked to house, lies a former

prison, beside boiler house. 17th century newel stair. Burn's

work in upper stages includes Jacobean panelling in hall, and

timber stair, decorative plasterwork, plain chimneypieces.

BOUNDARY WALLS: rubble boundary walls with squat piers,

pyramid capped.

"CHAPEL": small gabled building set on steeply falling ground to

S of house, possibly associated with earlier house; rubble

sandstone with slate roof, entered by doorway on N side; window

in E gable. Serving as outbuilding, adjoined to boundary walls

by walled area on steep ground to S.

GAME LARDER: 2-stage, square building of circa 1830, in

red rubble, sneck harled, set in slope with door to upper

floor at E, louvred bipartite to N side; timber brackets to

overhanging eaves of grey slated swept roof, louvred ventilator

at apex.

Statement of Interest

The title deeds suggest that some building was on the site of

Spott House from 1295. The fortified house which Burn rebuilt,

appears to have been present by 1650, in the hands of the Hays,

when legend has it that Colonel Leslie stayed at the house on

the night before the Battle of Dunbar, and Cromwell on the

following night! Burn was commissioned by James Sprott,

who had just bought the earlier property, and his design was contemporary with his work at Tyninghame House; James Dorward

of Haddington was the builder. Burn almost certainly landscaped

the area with the avenue of trees; the house was sited for a

spectacular view. By the Larder and "Chapel" are 2 more ruinous buildings, one a roofless former house, the other a small

square piend-roofed larder. The Lodge, stable court, kennels

and Home Farm lie to S, and are listed separately.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17792355

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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