Almondell House

Almondell & Calderwood Country Park

Lovely ravine of the River Almond and its feeders, the Murieston and Linhouse Waters, opened as a country park in the 1970s. The Visitor Centre, c.1790, coachhouse and stables for the curiously unsophisticated Almondell House (designed by its owner Henry Erskine in 1786 and demolished in 1969), is symmetrical with pedimented two-storey centre section flanked by pavilion-roofed wings and other offices. Guidebook available.

In front is the Earl of Buchan's Astronomical Pillar, 1776, removed from Kirkhill House, Broxburn; a square pier, incised with Latin inscriptions and astronomical equations, surmounted by a belltower and cross. Other stone fragments rescued from Kirkhill by West Lothian History and Amenity Society have recently been built into the garden walls. Walks are peculiarly beautiful.

Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NT06NE 46.00 0900 6905 Almondell House

NT06NE 46.01 09077 69182 Stables and Coach House, Centre Block

NT06NE 46.02 09089 69196 Stables and Coach House, NE Wing

NT06NE 46.03 09069 69165 Stables and Coach House, SW Wing

NT06NE 46.04 09085 68128 South Lodge

NT06NE 46.05 09064 69187 Astronomical Pillar

The house is depicted on the OS 1:2500 scale map (Linlithgowshire, Sheet 10, 1907). Information from RCAHMS (S.C.), April 2002.

NMRS NOTES:

Built in 1790 by Henry Erskine, younger brother of 11th Earl of Buchan.

This Category C building was gutted c.1950

Blown up on 15/09/1969. Information from Demolitions catalogue held in RCAHMS library.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

National Library:

Small's 'Castles and Mansions of the Lothians'.