Interior. View of kitchen from west. Digital image of C 43632.

Description Interior. View of kitchen from west. Digital image of C 43632.

Date 25/5/1994

Catalogue Number SC 769770

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 43632

Scope and Content Kitchen from west, Arniston House, Midlothian This shows the kitchen with its two close stoves under arches (right) and Venetian window (central arched window flanked by smaller flat-topped windows) on the left. In front of the windows can be seen an elevated pulley-driven railway which was used for sending food to the dining room on the first floor. The column in the centre of the room is fitted with unusual circular shelves, and the table below is shaped to fit up against it. This kitchen would have once been a busy, hot and smoky space governed by a cook and her team of kitchen and scullery maids. The two ranges would be kept at different temperatures to enable different types of foods to be cooked at the same time. The long tables would be scrubbed clean each day, as they were used as food preparation surfaces. The railway cart was loaded with food from a 'terminus' area reached by a short flight of wooden steps outside the kitchen. Arniston House, the seat of the Dundas family, was built in the Palladian style from 1726 onwards by architect William Adam (1689-1748) on the site of a c.1600 U-plan tower-house. His son John (1721-92) added the west wing and orangery in 1753. The house was further altered during the 19th century, and comprises a central three-storeyed block with flanking two-storeyed service pavilions joined to the main building by two-storeyed links. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/769770

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap