Archaeology Notes

Event ID 721044

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/721044

NT67NE 86.00 67906 75287

(NT 67905 75287 Spott House (NAT)

OS 6" map (1957)

Externally, Spott House is mid-19th century, but it incorporates an older mansion in which tradition says that Oliver Cromwell slept after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. It may also be the house visited by James VI in February 1595.

J Hardy 1882

Spott House has been considerably modernised and shows, externally, no evidence of the earlier structure. The estate of Spott dates back to 1296, when Elias de Spot swore fealty to Edward I. At one time the house was surrounded by a moat (Reminiscences and Notes of Ten Parishes of the County of Haddington 1894) of which there is now no trace. Visited by OS (RD) 25 March 1966

Spott House occupies an excellent site, on a SW spur of Doon Hill, naturally moated by a fork in the Spott Burn; but this has been culverted on the W side, possibly before 1830, when William Burn recast the building. The W (entrance) front is all Burn's except for the block to the N which he crowned with two crowstepped gables and prolonged with an entrance bay and a Jacobean doorpiece. Spott has been diversely occupied since the 13th century and the other fronts hint at a complex history. However, the only characteristic early details are the chamfers of the 17th century windows in the N block, which has a later roof. The S block, founded on massive under-building, some of whose lower chambers are built up, has round turrets of the 17th century or earlier. Burn completely transformed the interior, though there is still a 17th century turnpike stair.

C McWilliam 1978