Barony House, Wadingburn Road, Lasswade

Barony House, Wadingburn Road, Lasswade

This is a Grade A listed building of late 18th-century origin with substantial 19th and early 20th-century additions. It comprises a two-storey, seven-bay picturesque rustic cottage with a single-storey addition and attic, augmented by a bowed and thatched wing to the east (added around 1781) and extensive Scots Baronial-style extensions to the south, forming a U-plan layout. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble—both squared and snecked—with areas of harling. Details include droved margins to windows, a polished ashlar canted bay to the outer left, some windows with roll mouldings, a string course functioning as a hood mould between ground and first floors, a cill course to a corbelled bay right of centre, hood mould and scrolled pediment over a square panel to the gablehead of the corbelled bay, eaves course, and crowstepped gables. Windows are twelve- and eight-pane timber sash and case type. The roof is grey slate with thatch to the east addition; ashlar coped chimney stacks, ashlar gabletted skews, ashlar coped gablets to windows, and cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.

The southeast principal elevation is irregular, spanning seven bays, with a crowstepped gabled wing to the left (south) and thatched bowed wing to the right (east). A tripartite window occupies the ground floor at the centre bay with a gableted window above. Right of centre is a corbelled double bay with a ground-floor window set to the right of the corbel and windows in each first-floor bay; a hood-moulded and scroll-pedimented panel rises to the crowstepped gable above with a gablehead chimney stack. The outer right thatched bay has a tripartite window at ground within the bowed bay, flanked by further windows (the left blinded), and a window set into the thatch above. The two-bay left return features a tripartite window at ground in the right bay and a boarded door with flanking half-timbering and glazing plus a half-timbered panel above at ground in the left bay; a four-light window with herring-bone weatherboarding to its apron sits at first floor, with a separate slate roof projecting from the thatch. Three round-arched recesses (the central one serving as a window) span the ground floor of the bay left of centre, with a gablet-headed window above. An advanced bay to the penultimate left carries a first-floor window and crowstepped gable above; three blinded round-arched recesses occupy the right return. Further advanced, a three-light canted bay with a part-glazed door to centre and flanking windows at ground level, divided by Doric half columns with dentilled cornice featuring egg-and-dart moulding beneath, supports a 1996 wrought-iron strapwork balcony with oak-leaf motifs above; a part-glazed door appears at first floor with a crowstepped gable above and small oval window to the right return.

The northwest entrance elevation is irregular, spanning nine bays, with a crowstepped double bay to the outer right (west). A window occupies the ground floor at the centre bay. A bay left of centre has a bipartite window at ground and bipartite window at first floor above. A timber canopy and supports shelter a timber-panelled door at ground in the next bay, with a lintel inscribed 'A 1914 C' and a window at first floor above. Successive bays carry windows at ground and first floor. The outermost right bay displays bipartite windows at both levels; a gable spanning both bays carries a shield panel to the gablehead. A part-glazed door at ground appears in a bay left of centre with a non-aligned first-floor window above. The remaining bays to the left contain windows at ground and non-aligned windows at first floor. A single-storey lean-to addition, turned west through 90 degrees, projects at the outer right bay, with a window to its front face and right return. A square-plan, piend-roofed kitchen addition projects northward from the outer left angle.

The interior features deep, ornately carved cornices to the hall; a carved timber fireplace and timber dado panelling in the south drawing room; a pilastered cornice with swag decoration surrounding the stairwell at ground; and carved swagged urns at the angles of the banisters.

Historical Context

The building began as an 18th-century cottage, whose basic form can still be distinguished. Around 1781, John Clerk of Eldin, brother-in-law to Robert Adam, extended it by adding a large bowed drawing room with thatched roof to the east end, creating an L-plan villa of considerable size and comfort. Following the fashion among Edinburgh gentry for rusticated country retreats, the exterior received picturesque treatment whilst the interior retained large, classically proportioned rooms—a characteristic cottage ornée approach. The building served as the first marital home of Sir Walter Scott, who rented it from the Clerks of Penicuik between 1798 and 1804. The Wordsworths took tea at Lasswade Cottage, as it was then known, in 1803. Around 1865, it was converted into a Dower house for the Clerks of Penicuik, when dormers and crowstepped gables were added. Further extension by James Tait & Co took place between 1913 and 1919, the latter work evidenced by the lintel dated 1914.

The building is among a relatively small number of structures in Scotland with a surviving thatched roof. A 2016 survey by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings identified only around 200 thatched buildings remaining across Scotland, predominantly in small rural communities. The listing record was revised in 2021 as part of the Thatched Buildings Listing Review.