Melville Castle

Melville Castle is a Grade A listed building designed by architect James Playfair between 1786 and 1791, with later alterations and additions. It is a three-storey, symmetrical, square-plan castellated mansion with circular angle towers, battlements, and a late 19th-century square-plan entrance porch. The main block is accompanied by two-storey, three-bay wings with chamfered, square angle piers (half piers at the junction with the main block) and Soanian terminal drums, and a single-storey, five-bay office block to the west.

The exterior is constructed in stugged and droved ashlar sandstone with polished and droved dressings. Decorative features include a base course, moulded cills to the first-floor windows, chamfered surrounds to windows, hood moulds to ground and first-floor windows and to the second floor of the towers, a cill course to the first and second floors, an eaves course, and battlements.

The north (entrance) elevation features a segmental-arched and hood-moulded doorpiece to a square-plan entrance porch at ground level in the central bay, with a blocked door and a carved and painted armorial panel above. Bipartite ogee-arched and hood-moulded windows occupy each return, with tripartite windows at the first and second floors above. Tripartite windows appear at each floor in each flanking bay. Point-arched windows to the front and outward-facing aspects at each floor light the angle towers. Bipartite windows at ground and first floors occupy each bay of the flanking three-bay wings. All ground-floor windows are blinded. The five-bay office wing to the west contains a window in the central bay, windows in the flanking bays, and flat-arched openings in the outermost flanking bays.

The south (rear) elevation is four-bay and symmetrical, featuring angle towers, two-bay wings, and a seven-bay office block. Windows appear at each floor in each bay of the main block, with point-arched windows to the front and outward-facing aspects at each floor of the angle towers. Tripartite windows occupy each bay of the wings at each floor. All ground-floor windows in the main block are blinded. The office block contains windows in each bay.

The east (side) elevation shows an advanced two-storey, three-bay wing with a two-bay second storey of the main block set back behind. Bipartite windows appear at each floor in each bay of the wing, with tripartite windows in each bay at the second floor of the main block.

The west (office block) elevation displays a single-storey office block projecting westward at ground level from the west face of the west wing, which in turn projects from the four-bay west face of the main block. The second floor of the main block contains windows in each bay.

Windows throughout feature stone mullions and transoms. The main block is fitted with twelve-pane timber sash-and-case windows, while the angle towers have pointed-arched eight-pane timber sash-and-case windows. The flanking wings contain six-pane casement windows with fixed two-pane lights above, and the rear wings have eight-pane timber sash-and-case windows. The office block retains no window frames. The building has a piend and platform roof with slates missing and a flat roof (also missing) over the office block. Chimney stacks project from the wings and the centre of the main block. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present.

Historical Context

Melville Castle was built for Henry Dundas, fourth son of Robert Dundas of Arniston. Henry Dundas was created 1st Viscount Melville in 1800 and became an extremely significant political figure in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, earning the title "uncrowned King of Scotland" through appointments including Solicitor General for Scotland, Lord Advocate, Treasurer of the Navy, and Keeper of the Signet and Privy Seal. The Melville Monument in St Andrew Square was erected in his honour after his death in 1811.

The castle replaced an earlier castle of the same name that had belonged to David Rizzio and was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots. The site occupies a beautiful wooded clearing beside the River North Esk, celebrated by Sir Walter Scott, who called it "Melville's beech grove." Playfair's new Gothic fortress recalls Inveraray Castle but is moderated by its classically symmetrical proportions, incised Soanian terminal drums (similar to those of John Soane's Langley Park gateway designs), and classical interior detailing.

The original interior was notable for its grandeur. A full-height three-storey stairwell terminated in a ceiling painted with putti, with decorative banisters and friezes continuing to an Ionic colonnade. The bow-ended dining and drawing rooms commanded views over parkland down to the river. The house is now largely a shell, with little remaining beyond the cantilevered stair. The entrance porch was added in the late 19th century. The building later operated as a hotel before closing in the 1980s.

Melville Castle forms a group with Chestnut House, East Lodge, Esk Cottage, Garden Cottage, Garden Farmhouse, Walled Garden, Lodge, South Driveway Bridge, South Lodge, Walled Garden Steading, and Willie's Temple.