Medwyn House, Medwyn Road, West Linton

Medwyn House is a large country house with a core dating to the late 18th or early 19th century, significantly altered and extended around 1858 and further remodelled by 1899. It is built in a Scots Domestic style with a roughly L-plan configuration and is situated within wooded policies at the centre of a former estate.

The principal, south-facing elevation features a single-storey castellated entrance porch in the centre. To the right are double-height windows, with a crowstep gabled bay to the far right featuring a four-light canted projection. To the left is a two-storey, tower-like section at the southwest angle, also with a double-height canted bay. A single-storey billiard room extension with a swept-roof and a four-light canted window projects from the right gable end. The exterior is mainly harled rubble with pale sandstone ashlar dressings. The windows are predominantly timber sash and case with four panes of glass. The roof is covered in grey slate, and tall gable end and ridge stacks topped with clay cans are present, along with cast-iron rainwater goods.

Inside, the grand entrance hall contains an arcaded staircase with tapering timber columns and turned balusters, a coffered plasterwork ceiling, timber panelling, and a fireplace. The billiard room extension has a vaulted ceiling.

The three-storey section facing west and the structure of the main entrance hall are likely original to the 18th century. The tower-like addition with canted bay windows and an attic, added to the northwest corner in the mid to late 19th century, is a prominent feature. The castellated entrance porch and billiard room additions, along with the hall interior’s coffered ceiling and timber-panelled arcaded staircase, were constructed in 1899.

Historically, the house was previously owned by James Wedderspuine, who was implicated in the murder of David Rizzio. It was known as 'Bridgehouse' in the early 19th century and operated as ‘Brig House Inn’, even hosting Charles X during his exile from France. John Hay Forbes purchased the house in 1849 and incorporated it into the adjacent Medwyn estate, subsequently commissioning further remodelling work between 1850 and 1900. An inscribed lintel stone within the castellated entrance porch is dated 1899 with the initials I.H.F.