Ashiestiel House

NT43NW 6 43038 35143

(NT 4303 3513) Ashiesteel (NAT)

OS 6" map (1957)

Ashiesteel embodies work of at least four periods, the original house having developed from a simple oblong block through the addition of wings to its present form of an open square. The whole now has the general appearance of a 19th century mansion. As seen from the SW, the height appears to be two storeys and an attic, but there is also a basement, visible only on the NE due to the slope of the ground. The walls are harled.

The original house, which is said to date from 1660, measured 42 ft by 23 ft, and remains of it can be seen in the NE wall, which is thicker than its SE counterpart, in the gables of the central block, and in the lowermost steps of a stone stair in the basement, renewed above in wood, which is set internally against the centre of the NE side. To this period belongs a fireplace with a roll-and- hollow moulding, evidently original and in situ, in the NW gable on the principal floor, and perhaps also the crow-stepping on the gables of the central block. The NW wing has evidently been built in two stages, both probably in the second half of the 18th century, though the coped crow-steps are identical with those of the SE wing which, with the porch and lateral extensions to the facade and the pierced screen and parapet, is to be dated to about 1830.

RCAHMS 1957, visited 1953

Ashiesteel was the home of Sir Walter Scott from 1804 to 1812. The house, which is now called 'Ashiestiel', is not outstanding.

Visited by OS (MJF) 29 November 1979

'Echesteile' is listed as a stede in the royal Ettrick Forest in 1456. It was held by Thomas Ker of Ferniehurst in 1588.

M L Anderson 1967