Publication Account
Date 1997
Event ID 1017022
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017022
Gardie House gazes serenely out over Bressay Sound. It has seen Lerwick develop from a village into a town, and the Sound teeming with sailing boats. It was built for William Henderson of Gardie in 1724 and passed through marriage to the Mouats of Garth in Delting in 1799. It was 'Young Mr Mouat' who entertained Sir Walter Scott here in 1814, and who was commended by Scott as a moderate improver. At that time the house was still as first built, a square block of two storeys with rusticated quoins (corner-stones) set off by harling. It stood in a walled garden, with a central main gate and an archway flanked by piers with ball finials at either end of the seaward wall, and its own pier. Around 1905, a square entrance porch was added, apparently reusing the original door surround, along with small single-storey wings. The original seven-bay design had grouped the windows as a central set of five flanked on either side by a larger gap and another window. This allowed the architect of the early 20th century, John M Aitken of Lerwick, to add a pedimented attic over the central five bays. To lighten the effect, he made three rather than five windows in the attic.
There is a U-shaped court of domestic offices at the back of the house, built perhaps in the later 18th century. Sometime in the 19th century, the archways in the garden wall were made into corniced boathouses.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Shetland’, (1997).
