Wednesday 23 April 2014

Amisfield Mains

Amisfield House near Haddington in East Lothian was the first orthodox Palladian house to be built in Scotland and it was demolished in 1928. However the Amisfield Mains ('mains' derives from demesne, and is the Scottish term for a home farm) survives.


The farm has pyramidal gables with exaggerated castellations and pointed arches designed to catch the eye from the policies of the house. In all probability this is the 'Castle' that Robert Mylne recorded in his diary of 1766 as being built for the Earl of Weymss. (It is therefore contemporary with Mylne's tower for Thomas Farr at Blaise Castle near  Bristol.




Amisfield Mains is still owned by the Earl of Weymss and March and now forms part of the Gosford Estate.


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