Traquair House, summer house View of interior showing date - 1834

Description Traquair House, summer house View of interior showing date - 1834

Date 6/1957

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 760032

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of PB 1107

Scope and Content Interior of heather hut, Traquair House, Scottish Borders This shows the heather hut in the gardens, with part of the heather-thatched walls visible on the left. The interior is intricately decorated with cut hazel twigs laid to form a herringbone pattern. The date '1834' and a crown are set into the wall above a circular twig-decorated table. Arcaded seating is arranged around the walls. This heather hut is a rare survival of one of the 'roofed seats, boat houses, moss houses, flint houses and bark huts' described in gardening books such as J C Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Gardening' of 1822. These picturesque little buildings formed 'resting-places, containing seats and other furniture, or conveniences in or near them'. Traquair is the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland, with its origins in the 10th century. It was the site of a royal hunting lodge in the 1200s, but the house as seen today is based around a c.1512 tower-house with many later additions. The flanking service wings were built in 1695 to designs by architect James Smith (c.1645-1731), who also designed the wrought-iron screens round the courtyard in 1698. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/760032

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap