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Auchendinny House

Country House (18th Century)

Site Name Auchendinny House

Classification Country House (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Auchindinny House

Canmore ID 51853

Site Number NT26SE 6

NGR NT 25172 61336

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51853

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Midlothian
  • Parish Lasswade
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District Midlothian
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT26SE 6 25172 61336.

(NT 2517 6133) Auchendinny House (NAT)

OS 6" map (1957)

Auchendinny House is the latest and smallest example of the work of Sir William Bruce. Its layout is typical of his work and others of his day, i.e. a regular, symmetrical oblong flanked by two outlying pavilions linked to it by curved screen walls.

Internally there are two vaulted chambers in the western part of the basement suggesting the representation there of an older house of 16th - 17th century date. This is, however, not conclusive but from family papers the house appears to have been completed by 1707.

RCAHMS 1929

This house, occupied and in good repair, is as described.

Visited by OS (SFS) 28 October 1975

Architecture Notes

NT26SE 6.00 2517 6133

6.01 2518 6138 Auchendinny House, Stables

NMRS REFERENCE:

Owner: Mr & Mrs Dalmahoy

Architect: Sir William Bruce c.1700

Activities

Field Visit (24 November 1926)

Auchindinny House.

The estate of Auchindinny was acquired in 1702 (1) by John Inglis, Writer to the Signet. The mansion (Fig.82), standing less than half a mile south of the village, is of particular interest as the smallest example known of Sir William Bruce's work (2). It is also the latest in date. From family papers it appears to have been completed by 1707, at which date Bruce would be some 77 years of age. The house is approached by a short avenue of limes and beeches from the old coach road running through Auchindinny village. The lay-out is one greatly favoured by Bruce and other architects of the time, an oblong house, regular and symmetrical, flanked by two outlying pavilions linked to it by curved screen walls; in these houses the chimney-flues are no longer placed in the gables, but are carried in internal walls. At Auchindinny the masonry is coursed rubble keyed for harling. The margins are back-set, the eaves-course is moulded. The walls are slightly offset at base. The flat-topped roof is slated on the slopes and has a graceful bell-cast. In the height there are a ‘laich’ floor, two upper floors and an attic. The pavilions are two-storeyed. The ground has been cut back to air the ‘laich’ floor, and the lowest window sills have been cutdown for a like purpose. Internally, the existence of two vaulted chambers suggests that the western part of the basement represents an older house of c. 16th-17th-century date. But, though the vaulting would quite well suit a building of that time and is less likely to have been built so late as the 18th century, this evidence is not quite conclusive.

The entrance is centred at first-floor level and is a good Renaissance doorway reached by a flight of steps. It opens on a hall, behind which lies the staircase of scale-and-platt type, spacious and easily graded, which rises from ground to attic. The newels are of freestone, demi-shafts with slightly cut capitals and bases; the steps have bowtels. On the basement floor the western third of the house has been a single vaulted chamber but is now subdivided; in the vault are iron rings on which a hanging pole has been suspended. In front of the staircase is a small vaulted cellar. The eastern third of the basement comprises the kitchen and offices.

On the first floor the dining-room and its service occupy the western part of the house, and in the eastern part are two sitting-rooms, all considerably altered. The architrave of the dining-room entrance is of pine and is shouldered at top and sides. The fireplace of the south-east room is of moulded stone. The second-floor landing has been panelled in Memel pine, and much of this remains. Here also the door architraves are shouldered. The little room at the stair-head is fully panelled in oak and has two presses in the panelling of the back wall. The fireplace is of moulded stone. The western part of the house at this level now forms one large and dignified chamber but was originally subdivided. The walls here are panelled in oak, save at places where panels and doors of pine are substituted. The principal fireplace is large and has a good moulded border of stone. The eastern part of the house comprises two bedrooms panelled in Memel pine, having conventional picture panels above the doors and fireplaces. The fireplaces are of stone, moulded. The rooms are entered from a little lobby also panelled in Memel pine. The attic floor has been modernised, and dormers have been inserted.

The pavilions follow generally the treatment of the house. The northern window of each is delicately moulded and shouldered; the other openings have back-set margins. In the western wall of the western pavilion is an archway, now built up, set at such a low level that its purpose is not clear. In this pavilion there are two chambers below, with rooms above, the latter originally entered from a forestair at the back. In the eastern pavilion, the back chamber seems to have been the bakehouse or brewhouse, the boarded-up projection within the other chamber being possibly an oven or kiln. The newel-stair giving access to the upper floor seems to have been removed from an older house and re-erected in its present position. This house was the residence of Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling, from 1795 till 1807 (3).

RCAHMS 1929, visited 24 November 1926

(1) The Family of Inglis of Auchindinny and Redhall, by John A. Inglis, p. 21;

(2) See RCAHMS 1929 Introd. p. xliii;

(3) The Family of Inglis, p. 174.

Note (6 August 2014)

The list description for the house (built c1700), notes that there is some debate as to the dating of the pavilions.

The window tax records from 1748/9 record that Auchindinny House had 60 window. Though the tax rate was 10 shillings, the owner (Mr Inglis) was only charged £2.10.0 rather than £3. A note in the margin in the same hand explains: '...10 of which [windows] in the South Pavilion not yet finished and therefore not charged.'

Ref E326/1/71/1, Window Tax, Scotlands Places

This information was identified and drawn to the attention of RCAHMS by Patricia Cook.

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