Alderston House, Haddington

Alderston House, Haddington

Alderston House is a classical mansion built circa 1790, constructed in sandstone ashlar with a symmetrical plan of five bays and three storeys over a sunk basement. The main house is accompanied by set-back pavilion wings and a central kitchen block to the rear, with a porch added around 1820 and a single-storey west wing added around 1830.

The main front elevation faces south and displays the principal classical features. The base course is light-brown sandstone in rock-faced ashlar, while the ground floor features rusticated ashlar with flat-arched windows. A cill course marks the first-floor level, with the first and second floors finished in broached ashlar with rusticated quoins and architraved windows. The central bay is advanced and pedimented, with the second floor foreshortened beneath a cornice and eaves course.

A classical porch projects from the centre, comprising two pairs of Doric columns backed by simple squared pilasters, topped by a plain flat-roofed entablature with frieze, cornice and blocking course. Five stone steps lead to the platform. The front door consists of two leaves with six flush panels and a decorative fanlight, flanked symmetrically by narrow panelled and glazed windows to the hall.

The side elevations contain two bays each, finished in stonework matching the front. The east elevation has small windows added at first and second-floor level, with the sunk basement evident. The west elevation has one window infilled at first-floor level. The rear elevation of five bays is constructed in squared and coursed rubble with ashlar quoins and raised margins. The basement is visible, the second floor is foreshortened, and the central bay features leaded stairwell windows with a dummy window to the first floor and a basement door.

The east wing is two storeys with a foreshortened upper floor. Its front elevation forms a three-sided symmetrical composition in broached grey sandstone ashlar with raised cills. The remaining elevations are harled, with three bays to the sides and rear. The west elevation has a piended lean-to with a ground-floor door and a blind window to the first floor. The rear elevation contains two blind doorways at ground level, a central doorway converted to windows, and one blind window at first-floor level.

The west wing is similar in form to the east wing, with a later extension adjoining to the front. At upper-floor level there is one dummy window to the front and two to the rear, plus one to the east. Three symmetrical windows face the rear elevation. A piended lean-to with doors to the east and to a two-storey link with the main house is present, along with one blind doorway. A single-storey extension to the front is constructed in smooth ashlar with a base course, cill course, cornice and blocking course, featuring three bays to the south front, a bipartite low window to the west, and all windows with architrave.

The central rear block is two storeys with a foreshortened upper floor, gabled to the north with a simple pediment and piended to the main house. It is harled with ashlar margins. The west elevation has two windows at ground level, one tripartite and three windows at first-floor level. The north gabled elevation contains two windows at first-floor level, one dummy. The east elevation has three windows at first-floor level and one dummy, plus a small glazed oculus, with a lean-to against the ground floor and a door.

Windows throughout are timber sash and case type, generally twelve-pane on the main elevations but reduced to six-pane on the foreshortened upper floors. The west wing of 1830 features lying panes to the south elevation and multi-paned windows to a bow window.

The roofs are piended and covered with grey graded Scotch slates. Two large ashlar stacks serve the main house, each with cope and eight plain cans. A small stack to the front pediment has a single can. Other stacks are ashlar, coped, with plain cans.

An ice house stands to the rear of the main house, with a semi-circular front elevation facing south, finished in ashlar cope with a single central door. It is vaulted and grassed over.