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Baberton House

Country House (17th Century), Office (20th Century)

Site Name Baberton House

Classification Country House (17th Century), Office (20th Century)

Canmore ID 50265

Site Number NT16NE 1

NGR NT 19094 69216

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/50265

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Currie
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Architecture Notes

NT16NE 1.00 19094 69216.

NT16NE 1.01 19039 69204 Bothy

NT16NE 1.02 19044 69130 Walled Garden

NT16NE 36 19117 69183 Sundial

(NT 1909 6921) Baberton House (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

NOTES:

Baberton House was built in 1622-3. On plan it comprises a main block, 54 1/2' x 23', three storeys and a garret in height, from which two lower wings 18' broad return 16 1/2' southwards. Additions were made in 1765. The walling is of rubble and was originally harled, with exposed dressings. On the lawn S of the house is a 17th century sundial with a modern dial-plate.

A charter of 1597 specifies a tower on the lands of "Kilbaberton", a name which was apparently used until at least the 17th century.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 1921; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1892

Baberton House (name confirmed by Mrs Robertson, Baberton House) is in good condition and occupied.

Visited by OS (VEL) 4 February 1954

No change to previous field report.

Visited by OS (BS) 23 December 1975

NMRS REFERENCE

Owner: A F Robertson, Esq

Visited: CMcW 1956

Dates: 1622-3

1765 Centre portion

Activities

Field Visit (26 May 1921)

Baberton House.

Baberton is an unpretentious and commodious 17th – century house, situated on the same ridge as Riccarton, about half a mile north-west of Juniper Green. It stands fairly high and commands pleasant views on each side. It was built in 1622-3 by Sir James Murray, whose initials, with those of his wife, Katherine Weir, occur on various parts of the building. The plan comprised a main block, 54 ½ feet by 23 feet, of three storeys and a garret in height, from which two lower wings 18 feet broad returned 16 ½ feet southwards; within the re-entrant angles were circled stair-towers. In 1765, when the property was apparently in possession of the Anderson family, the court between the wings was filled in with a three-storeyed addition, which projects southward from the wings as a semi-octagon. About this time some minor structural alterations were executed internally, and the kitchen outbuilding appears to be work of the same period. Rebuilt as a corbel-stone on the latter part is a triangular pediment bearing a strapwork cartouche with an oval centrepiece parted per pale and charged: dexter, on a chevron between three stars two and one, a fleur-de-lys, and, sinister, a lion rampant between three crescents. The initials I.M. appear above and K.W. at the sides of the armorials, being those of the couple named above.

The walling is of rubble and was originally harled, but the dressings were exposed. A splayed basement-course returned along the south front; the windows have dressed and back -set margins chamfered or more frequently rounded at the arris. On the wing gables the upper windows have circular and triangular pediments. One bears initials as above, with the date 1622. The upper windows of the main block gables are similarly pedimented. The pediment finials are the fleur-delys, thistle, star and crescent. The three dormer windows looking north bear in the pediments, respectively, LM., 1623, and K.W. The east turnpike was removed, probably when the south addition was carried out, and replaced by a scale-stair that rises from first to second floor.

On the first floor the principal apartments look northward. The dining-room, at the west end of the main block, is a fine room, 29 by 17 feet, lit from north and west. The walls are fully panelled in Memel pine. The plaster cornice, of about the 18th century, is delicately moulded and gracefully enriched with the leaf, pearl, egg-and-dart, dentil, and cable ornaments. The 17th-century fireplace is particularly fine, although it was contracted in the following century. It is executed in a fine cream-coloured freestone, and is as fresh and sharp as when first wrought. The jambs, 5 feet 1 inch high and 7 feet 2 inches apart, are delicately moulded at the arrises. The lintel stone, 9 feet 2 inches in length and 1 ½ feet high, has three arabesque panels in low relief, one over each jamb and one in the centre; the end panels bear in their arabesques the star and the crescent, while the central panel is inscribed LM. These panels have moulded capitals with egg-and-dart enrichment. The fireplace frieze is plane, but the architrave and cornice are moulded.

Opposite the fireplace the south wall contains a semicircular niche, the head of which is formed as a shell. In the north-west angle is an L-shaped mural closet.

En suite with the dining-room is a chamber with a good 17th-century ribbed plaster ceiling, enriched with ‘stamps’ in each compartment. The outer compartments carry stars, the inner bear in turn the components of the national arms of Great Britain, but the Scottish lion, curiously, is absent. The stamps employed are the rose slipped beneath a crown, the thistle slipped beneath a crown, the portcullis beneath a crown (the Tudor emblem, similarly employed on a ceiling at Winton Castle, East Lothian), the harp beneath a crown, a fleur-de-lys beneath a crown, and a plume of ostrich feathers beneath a crown. The walls of this room are panelled up to the chair-rail, and the panelling may have once continued to the plaster cornice; since a panel remains there above the fireplace. The east wing contains a small chamber, subsequently curtailed to provide a passage and lavatory. The stone fireplace is surmounted by a pine panel. The room within the south addition is now the drawing room. Its plaster cornice is enriched with the bay-leaf garland of, its time.

On the upper floor there is a bedroom in each of the wings, and there are three within the main block. The only details of interest here are three very noteworthy oak doors ,of the 17thcentury, which are I inch in thickness. One is a two-panelled door, the others are eight-panelled. The centre of each panel is inlaid on one side. The ground is a dark wood resembling mahogany, and this is inset in the oak; in the dark wood the pattern is inlaid in a very fine grained light wood. In one door the pattern is placed upside down. The doors were hinged with ornate wrought-iron straps, but these are not complete.

Baberton is in good repair and preservation.

SUNDIAL. On the lawn south of the house is a 17th-century baluster-dial 16 inches broad and 3 feet 1 inch in height. The dial plate is modern.

HISTORICAL NOTE. A charter de novo of 1597 to John Elphinstone of the lands of ‘Kilbaberton’, as resigned by Henry Wardlaw, specifies a tower. In 1612 there is a similar grant by the King to James Murray architecto suo and Martha Murray, his spouse, of the lands of Kilbaberton with the tower, manor, etc., which William Wardlaw of Kilbaberton and his spouse had resigned; and in 1622 these lands were granted de novo to James Murray, Master of the King's Works, and his spouse, Katherine Weir, in life rent, and to James Murray, their second son, in fee, with the tower, manor-place, etc. 11 Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., Nos. 601, 689, 385.

RCAHMS 1929, visited 26 May 1921.

Photographic Survey (1956)

Photographic survey of the interior and exterior of Baberton House, Midlothian, by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1956.

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