Abbotsford House

Abbotsford House

This pioneering Baronial Revival country house was built for Sir Walter Scott between 1816 and the 1850s. The main house was designed by William Atkinson and Edward Blore between 1816–18 and 1822–24, constructed by John Smith of Darnick from 1822–55, with further additions by William Burn from 1850–55.

The house is predominantly two storeys with basement and attic, featuring an irregular plan with a two-storey courtyard wing to the southwest. The central section, built 1816–18, displays a crowstepped gable and square tower. The large northeast wing of 1822–24 is more elaborate, with an entrance porch, crowstepped gables, corner tower, machicolation, bartizans, balconies and dormers. The 1855 additions to the southwest courtyard wing include Tudor-style features, a secondary entrance and an oriel window to the southeast elevation.

The exterior is built of squared, coursed sandstone with sandstone ashlar dressings. Long and short quoins frame the walls, with hoodmoulds to most ground and first-floor windows. Windows are predominantly bipartite and tripartite, arranged in bays, with stone mullions to the 1855 additions and timber mullions to earlier parts. Small-pane glazing with some gothic detailing features in timber sash and case windows, though some plate glass appears in the 1850s wing. The roof is graded grey slate with corniced stacks, some with octagonal clay cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods include some hoppers. Ashlar-coped skews finish the gable ends.

Interior decoration is lavish throughout the principal rooms. Gothic-style plasterwork ceilings and cornicing feature extensively, complemented by gothic chimneypieces in carved stone and marble. The library and study have fitted shelves, the study includes a gallery with cast-iron railings, and the entrance hall, armoury and dining room are timber panelled. Gas light fittings remain in some rooms, notably a crystal gaselier with gilded decoration in the drawing room. Moulded architraves frame timber panelled doors throughout. A cantilevered, spiral stone staircase with domed ceiling and cast-iron balusters rises through the 1822 wing, while a stone staircase with cast-iron balusters serves the 1855 wing.

Service areas include a 1850s kitchen with dresser and cast-iron range, wine cellar with stone bins, larders and store-rooms with fitted cupboards, and a Victorian 'thunderbox' lavatory. The former Servants' Hall retains World War Two soldiers' paintings on its walls. The 1855 chapel contains a trussed timber roof supported on decorative corbels, a carved chimneypiece, and an altar with a circa 1480 Flemish altar-front; the sacristy adjoins with decorative porcelain fittings.

The South Courtyard, probably designed by John Smith of Darnick in 1824, forms a quadrangular enclosure to the southeast of the house. A crenellated entrance gateway opens from the southwest wall; boundary walls to the southwest and southeast contain niches with carved stonework. A small entrance gateway stands at the east corner, and an arched stone screen bounds the northeast side. Within the courtyard stand a fountain, sundial and mounting block formed from an effigy of Scott's dog Maida.

The East Courtyard, dating from circa 1824 with 1850 alterations, is a trapezoid-shaped walled garden to the northeast of the house and adjacent to the South Court. Random rubble walls with turrets or mini turrets occupy each corner. An entrance gateway to the kitchen garden opens in the northeast wall. A sunken visitor entrance passage connects the South and East courts. A late 19th-century sunken lawn with stone steps leads to terraces. A circa 1832 statue and sundial by John Greenshields stands within. An 1850 walled service enclosure with pedimented doorway and corner turret sits outside the East Court to the northwest.

The Kitchen Garden and Bothy, designed by John Smith of Darnick circa 1824, form a rectangular walled garden adjoining the East Court to the northeast. Random rubble walls are lined internally with red brick. A lean-to bothy with crowstepped half gables projects from the outer side of the northeast wall.

A conservatory, also by John Smith of Darnick, was built in 1823 within the Kitchen Garden. It comprises five bays by three bays, with a stone screen of pointed arches supporting a timber-framed glasshouse. Vertical strip glazing and a glazed roof complete the structure.

The Game Larder, Icehouse and Terraces, also by John Smith of Darnick, are situated to the northwest of the house. The game larder was built in 1851 incorporating an earlier 1821 icehouse; terraces date to circa 1851. Two steep earth terraces front the house, with a walled bank at the lawn's bottom. The castle-style game larder and icehouse are built into the upper terrace and connected to the house by tunnel, with a crenellated platform crowning the game larder.

The Gate Lodge, probably by William Burn or John Smith of Darnick and dated 1858, stands as a two-storey structure with roughly T-plan. Projecting crowstepped gables appear on the northeast, southeast and southwest elevations, with a lean-to addition to the northwest. Roughly coursed rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings composes the walls. Fenestration is fairly regular with small windows in roll-moulded margins; a slightly advanced bipartite window to the southwest (road) elevation bears a carved pediment above. A studded timber-boarded front door in roll-moulded margin opens from the northeast elevation with an inscription reading 'IN THE LORD IS MY HOPE I.R.H.S. 1858' above. Predominantly 20th-century timber windows with plate glass feature, though some timber sash and case windows and latticed lights remain. Coped, corniced stacks with octagonal clay cans rise through the roof of graded grey slate. An ashlar-coped random rubble boundary wall runs parallel to the road.

The Gardener's Cottage dates from circa 1818. It is a two-bay, single-storey gabled cottage with later flat-roofed additions to the northeast and a coped wall extending from the north. Random rubble with ashlar dressings and long and short quoins form the walls. Ashlar window dressings with projecting cills frame the irregular fenestration. The front door opens from the northwest elevation of the later addition. Predominantly small-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows lights the cottage. Deep, bracketed eaves trim the original cottage; a corniced gablehead stack with yellow clay can crowns the northwest gable. The roof is graded grey slate.

The Stable Block dates from circa 1816–20 with later additions and alterations, though it is now in ruinous condition. A courtyard-plan arrangement contains mid-19th-century piend-roofed outbuildings to the southwest, linked to the south corner by a coped wall. Predominantly single storey, with two-storey sections to the south and west corners, a single-storey and attic piend-roofed former coach house and cottage occupies the northeast range. Random rubble with red sandstone ashlar dressings and some grey render to the southeast and northwest ranges form the exterior. Various types of dormer windows light the two-storey sections. Coped ashlar gatepiers mark the entrance to the courtyard at the north corner. Coped stacks rise through the surviving roof sections of graded grey slate.

The West Court is a mid-19th-century walled service court to the southwest of the house. An L-plan outbuilding with half-gabled roof occupies the space. Random rubble walls and outbuilding with sandstone ashlar copes and quoins compose the structure. A walled pen adjoins the outbuilding, possibly a pig sty. A broken gas retort stands at the courtyard entrance. A 19th-century statue of Edie Ochiltree on a slab plinth stands outside the courtyard at the foot of the drive.