Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Event ID 560777
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Accessing Scotland's Past Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/560777
Andrew Don, the second son of James Don, Clerk of Kelso, built Smailholm House in 1707.
He evidently built it on the site of an earlier structure, which is represented by the remains of a vaulted cellar. It is three storeys high and built on an L-plan, and is a good late example of the traditional tower-house. Its crow-stepped gables, a characteristic feature of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scottish architecture, terminate at the base in ornate skewputs, which are carved to resemble grotesque heads.
Members of the Don family are commemorated by several inscriptions around the doors and windows. One above the main entrance is dedicated to Andrew Don himself: the initials AD are separated by what appears to be the family crest, a pomegranate, as well as portions of the family coat-of-arms and the date 1707. A nearby window has three sunken panels which commemorate Andrew's father, James Don, and his wife. This bears the initials JD and EK, and the date 1663.
Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project
