Battleblent House, Edinburgh Road, West Barns

Battleblent House, Dating from around 1860

Battleblent House is a detached residential property completed in the 1860s for William Brodie, owner of the nearby Seafield Brick and Tile Works. The house is built on an elevated site and accessed via stone steps leading to a raised terrace at the front.

The main house follows a Y-plan with predominantly two storeys and attic accommodation, though one elevation rises to three storeys and attic. It is topped by a single-storey hexagonal tower with a stone balustrade and squared piers. The building is constructed in painted brick with raised and painted sandstone margins, long and short quoins, and a dentilled cornice. The front terrace features battered brick walls with brick piers supporting stone balustrades and moulded squared stone piers. A similar rear terrace with battered walls and stone balustrade is accessed by stone steps from the garden.

The principal entrance on the northwest elevation comprises an advanced and pedimented, obliquely-set single bay entrance gable with a semi-circular fanlight in a moulded stone surround. The fanlight keystone is carved with a dog's head. Door surrounds and first floor quoins are rendered in reticulated blocks with smooth stonework on the remaining floors. The east elevation features a simple canopied entrance, while the southwest elevation has three glazed two-leaf doors opening onto the rear terrace.

Windows throughout are four-pane timber sash and case frames of varying sizes. The pitched roof is slated with later timber rooflights. Brick dummy chimneystacks sit at the apex of each gable and on the roof ridge. The building has straight stone skews and moulded skewputts.

The interior retains a mid to late-19th century decorative scheme with moulded cornicing, moulded architraves, ceiling roses, panelled timber doors and decorative window shutters in principal rooms. A central spiral staircase with a wide cylindrical shaft ascends from the lower ground floor, featuring moulded iron balusters and a timber handrail from the ground floor upwards. The hexagonal tower is accessed via an iron entrance hatch from the top floor. Fire surrounds in principal rooms are later replacement additions.

A former stables building stands to the east, a single-storey rectangular-plan structure in painted brick with a hayloft opening in the eaves of its piended slated roof. It has six-pane timber sash and case windows with plain cills and lintels. The interior was partitioned in the late 20th century for hotel office accommodation and remains unused.

A potting shed, brick-built and single-storey, stands to the southeast with an entrance outshot and piended slated roof with exposed rafter ends. It is not currently in use.

Historical Development

William Brodie and his family were documented as living in Battleblent House by 1868. Following William Brodie's death in 1877, his daughter Marion Brodie Sheriff occupied the house until the early 20th century.

The 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map (revised 1893) shows the house with a large conservatory on the southwest elevation, alongside the stables to the east and potting shed at the southeast corner.

In 1921, James Wilson of Duns, a Justice of the Peace, purchased Battleblent House and grounds. The property initially offered seasonal lodging and by 1934 had developed into a hotel with private tennis and putting facilities for seaside tourists. During the mid-20th century, the original conservatory was demolished and replaced with an extension containing a disco, which was subsequently removed. From around the 1970s, part of the grounds operated as a caravan site, with a shower block added to the rear of the stable block. The drive route was altered and extended to accommodate increased traffic. The former stables was converted to hotel office and staff accommodation.

Battleblent House closed as a hotel in the late 1990s and was converted back to a single dwelling around 2003.

A 1970s shower block extension is excluded from this listing in accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.