Preston Hall, The Lion's Gate

NT36NE 61.04 39252 65209

Pair of single storey, square-plan classical lodges with balustraded screen walls and paired columns supporting recumbent Coade stone lions. Dressed ashlar. Base and eaves course. Originally 12-pane timber sash and case, presently concealed behind timber sheeting. Piended grey slate roof with zinc ridging. Concealed rainwater goods. Stack to left of main building, replacement stack on W lodge, damaged cans; cans missing on E lodge.

Situated at the formal entrance to Prestonhall, the lodges straddle the drive that winds along a wooded slope, at the foot of which flows the Tyne Water. The origin of the lodges' name can be taken from the two lions which surmount the pillars, or from the circumstance that Sir Walter Scott, at this spot, introduces Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lord Lion King of Arms, for Scotland, as the guide of "Marmion" and his train to Crichton Castle. It was on this site that the Duchess of Gordon, then owner of the Hall, had breakfast prepared for Prince Charles Stuart in 1745. For this act, she lost the £1000 pension she received from the Exchequer, which she had been granted for raising her family as Protestants.

The ornamental lions are made from Coade stone - one of the earliest mass-produced artificial stones, named after its manufacturer Mrs Eleanor Coade. (Historic Scotland)