Houstoun House

Houston House.

At the western end of Uphall village the old house of Houston rises above the tree-tops of its finely timbered parks. The house is lofty, with severe facades, harled, and many-windowed. It is almost square on plan and forms the southern boundary of a small courtyard, walled at the sides and with a two-storeyed stable-block on the north. As it now stands, it is a large and commodious mansion of the later 17th century, but the present south-eastern portion is earlier, and represents ‘the mansion house, biggings, tower and fortalice begun to be built, and, God willing, to be finished as soon as possible’, referred to in 1600 (en.1). It was possibly L-shaped on plan, with the re-entrant angle lying open to the north-west, and containing a newel-stair tower.

The main block has been extended westward, and thence a wing returned northward, while a scale-stair was placed, either at this time or more probably later, between this new wing and the old; the back door, which opens beneath the stair, is dated 1757. Against the northern face of the old wing a service-stair tower was added in the 18th century. Later still are the front and back porches. The alterations can only be deduced from the plan, no indication remaining externally of the original arrangement.

On the basement floor of the original main block was a single-vaulted chamber, now subdivided, and the eastern gable is very heavy, probably to contain the first kitchen fireplace. The present fireplace has a 17th-century firebasket similar to one in the basement of Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire. In the later 17th-century scheme the entrance, which presumably lay originally in or near the newelstair, was transferred to the centre of the south wall, but has subsequently been reduced to a window. It opened into an entrance hall with through communication to the scale-stair. In the later wing a new kitchen was formed, and the great fireplace-arch still remains in the north gable. The chamber to the south, formed in the main block extension, is also vaulted. It has been sub-divided.

On the first floor the whole of the original main block forms the dining-room, at one time panelled in Memel pine, of which only the pilasters flanking the fireplace remain. It contains a glass cupboard in the north wall with shelves revolving on a spindle. The wing at this level is modernised as a pantry. The extension of the main block and the new wing are opened out to form the drawing-room, a powder-closet on the east being also included. The treatment here is Memel panelling, probably of the beginning of the 18th century. In the old east gable, now a mid-partition, a cupboard or close - garderobe is formed. It has a small bull's-eye light in the south wall. Above this floor the chambers in the old wing are at different levels from those of the main block, indicating that they were intended to be entered from a turnpike. These rooms are, or have been, panelled in Memel pine. The masonry is rubble, harled, with exposed dressings; these are acutely chamfered, with the exception of the 17th-century entrance, which is back-set and moulded. The gables are crow-stepped. The outbuilding has a vaulted basement; the upper floor is reached from a forestair, which has been renewed.

SUNDIAL. In the garden south of the house is a late baluster-dial, 4 ¾ feet in height and 16 ½ inches in greatest width.

DOVECOT. A rectangular dovecot, measuring 20 by 11 ¾ feet, which is probably contemporary with the later 17th-century additions, stands 100 yards NE of the house. The entrance faces south. The upper part has been rebuilt.

HISTORICAL NOTE. In 1638 John ‘Scharpe’ was served heir to his father John Sharp, advocate, feuar of Houston (en.2), and the place has remained with descendants of this family until the present day.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 10 September 1926

(1) Houston MSS., Section i-63, 17 March 1600; and Section ii-45, 31 May 1600

(2) Inquis. Spec., Linlith., No. 139.