History in Structure

Secret Garden, Tyninghame House

A Category A Listed Building in Dunbar and East Linton, East Lothian

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Coordinates

Latitude: 56.0096 / 56°0'34"N

Longitude: -2.6131 / 2°36'47"W

OS Eastings: 361868

OS Northings: 679801

OS Grid: NT618798

Mapcode National: GBR 2Z.T6WD

Mapcode Global: WH8VY.T6VS

Plus Code: 9C8V295P+RQ

Entry Name: Secret Garden, Tyninghame House

Listing Name: Tyninghame House with Garden Ornament and Gateway

Listing Date: 5 February 1971

Category: A

Source: Historic Scotland

Source ID: 347969

Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB14586

Building Class: Cultural

Also known as: Tyninghame House, Secret Garden

ID on this website: 200347969

Location: Whitekirk and Tyninghame

County: East Lothian

Electoral Ward: Dunbar and East Linton

Parish: Whitekirk And Tyninghame

Traditional County: East Lothian

Tagged with: Garden

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East Linton

Description

William Burn, 1829, incorporating 17th century mansion. 4-

storey rambling gabled and turrets U-plan baronial mansion

with 2 and 3-storey projections to E forming service court.

Squared and snecked pink rubble with stugged ashlar quoins

and pink and grey ashlar dressings. Stone mullions and

transoms. String courses.

N (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: advanced gables to left and right of

recessed centre with tall single storey central porch

projecting further; doorway altered Schomberg Scott, 1961, in

pale pink stone with bolection moulded surround and broken

shaped pediment with armorial. Pierced strapworked parapet.

Composition masses to right. Turret set in re-entrant angle

to left with narrow slits. Stair windows to gabled centre

bay of 4 and 3-lights. Projecting rectangular multi-light

window bay at ground and 1st floor to left outer bay with

parapet, detailed as above behind 2 irregularly set gables.

2 recessed, 2-storey bays adjoined to outer left with

rectangular porch set in re-entrant angle. Scrolled ornament

to gabled dormerheads. 3-storey gabled bay advanced to left

with high walls and ashlar gatepiers to service court beyond.

S (GARDEN) ELEVATION: deep U-plan gabled bay at centre; 3-

storey canted parapetted window flanked by windows at 2nd

floor and gablet dormers. Stair turret set in left re-

entrant with bowed projection adjoined to 1st floor height.

W COURTYARD ELEVATION: semi-circular projecting bay at centre

flanked to left by almost blank gable with raised battered

stack.

E COURTYARD ELEVATION: stair turret off-centre to left with 2

windows flanking at centre; recessed outer bay to right with

angle stair turret and consoled strapworked balcony. S gable of

W wing with full-height projecting rectangular window bay with

parapet detailed as above. S gable of E wing with canted bay

to 1st floor height with remaining portion of consoled balustrade. Pepper pot turret to upper floors at outer right angle.

W ELEVATION: almost symmetrical with stair turret off-centre

to left with balconied window as above and corbelled eaves

course. 2 window flanking to left, 3 to right with scroll

ornamented gabled dormerheads to 4th floor breaking eaves.

Shallow gables over 2 outer windows (N and S). Small attic

windows in gable head; multi-light canted windows at ground

and 1st floor with parapet detailed as above.

Service court nestles into E elevation with doorway at

innermost point under loggia at N.

Small-pane glazing pattern to sash and case windows.

Decorative gutter heads. Grey ashlar diamond stacks, linked

or clustered, with moulded copings. Grey slates. Swept-in

conical roofs to turrets with attenuated finials. Consoled

crowsteps and skewputts to gable heads.

INTERIOR: much original and eclectic decoration retained.

Currently undergoing subdivision (1987) with the minimal

alterations necessary. Ornate plaster cornices and

plasterwork ceilings. Bolection moulded door surrounds.

Jacobean stair well with plaster soffits. Original

wallpapers. Red marble Rococo chimneypiece in gallery; white

pilastered and corniced chimneypiece in Dining Room, of 18th

century, possibly from Rushbrooke Hall, Suffolk. Chimneypiece

in white marble with garland between owl and monkey in Lady's

Drawing Room, from Elie House. John Fowler pyramidal

bookcases in latter room with William McLaren 1967 mural

landscapes in approaching passage.

TERRACES AND GARDEN ORNAMENT: terraces stepped down by S of

house with stone steps and urn finials, leading to ruins of

St Baldred's Kirk. Scheduled Monument. Stone bordered square

flower beds with base course parapet and bold consoles.

Secret Garden to W of house with fountain shielded by stone

wall, incorporating fragments from Kirk. Modern summerhouse

in "Gothick" style in timber on rubble parapet and light

trellised gazebo with bellcote cap, circa 1960. Venetian

wellhead in courtyard, dated 1556.

GATEWAY: sited to NW of house, close by walled garden. 2

rusticated red sandstone square piers with moulded cornices

and stone acorn finials. Ornate wrought-iron pedestrian gate

with overflow and flanking panels in scroll and leaf

detailing.

Statement of Interest

Masonry of earlier house evident in S elevations.

1829-33 work executed by Thomas Hannan, mason. Consoled

balcony removed circa 1960 owing to structural

weakness, with fragment remaining, diminishing the

horizontal balance of the composition.

St Baldred's Kirk ruin in grounds to S serving as burial

ground for Earls of Haddington (Scheduled). Fragments

of Kirk incorporated in original stables.

Clock Tower Court, Walled Garden, Haddington Obelisk,

Dairy, Stables and Lodges listed separately. Stables

currently under conversion (1987).

External Links

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