Field Visit
Date 23 March 1920
Event ID 1087941
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1087941
Bankton House, better known perhaps as ‘Colonel Gardiner's House’ from its ill-fated owner who fell at the Battle of Prestonpans (1745), is a late 17th century mansion (fig. 20 [SC 1126871]) standing in a park rather less than a quarter of a mile south-east of Prestonpans station. It is oblong on plan and contains three storeys beneath the wall head; within the roof were two garret storeys. The high pitched gables are curved geometrically. The basement storey is partly sunk, so that the pedimented entrance at first floor level is reached from a flight of steps which crosses a ‘dry area’. To the south lies a large walled garden, now under plough, with a square Belvidere or garden house at either end of the north wall.
Bankton House was originally known as Olivstob and was purchased by Col. Gardiner from one of the Hamiltons. It was afterwards owned by Andrew Macdowall, Lord Bankton. In 1852 it was destroyed by fire, but wasr estored and is still in use as a farmhouse.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 23 March 1920.
