Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

CARBERRY TOWER WITH TERRACES AND SUNDIALLB10869

Status: Designated

Documents

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Summary

Category
B
Date Added
22/01/1971
Local Authority
East Lothian
Planning Authority
East Lothian
Parish
Inveresk
NGR
NT 36308 69671
Coordinates
336308, 669671

Description

Baronial mansion with complex building history. Evolved in anti- clockwise progress (McWilliam), from NW. 16th century tower, probably pre-1650, with large extension to S, late 17th century; S range largely attributed to late 18th and early 19th centuries; E range added by

David Bryce, circa 1860, with single storey billiard room to NW; Thomas Ross, 1909 and 1913, provided Baronial details. Interior alterations by Robert Lorimer, 1910. Rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings, some harl-pointing.

TOWER: 3-storey rectangular plan, 16th century tower; vaulted at ground and 1st floor; substantial and crenellated parapet with 2 gun loops, jettied on cavetto course, embellished with winged cherub masques (QV

palace, Stirling Castle); rounded stair tower, with later turret; flat-roof. Early 19th century. Buttressed rectangular ashlar porch projecting at ground at W, with parapet and round archway. Segmentally arched opening inserted at ground to N with tripartite lancet window;

transomed bipartite with mannered lintel, inserted at 1st floor to W. Wrought-iron fire basket.

16TH CENTURY ADDITIONS: substantial 3-storey and attic L-plan extension to S and E, with lower eaves, crowstepped gables and corbelled stair turret to E of SW tower; later additions by David Bryce including full- height canted bay to W, with armorial, and stone balustraded balcony.

S RANGE: in 2 phases, continuing 16th century additions to E; 3-storey and attic, with gabled wallheads; hoodmoulds and crenellated parapets added later; Thomas Ross additions comprised pepperpots, crowsteps,

beak skewputts, stone bracketted oriel panel to 1st floor window, and dated (1913), initialled, carved armorial.

E RANGE: David Bryce, circa 1860; comprised of 2 gabled bays at S, with 3 blinded windows, slightly recessed bay flanking and gabled advanced bays a N, rounded at ground, corbelled to square above and with

pepperpot turrets.

SERVICE COURT: inner court closed by single storey 19th century range with round archway to pend in gabled bay; single storey and attic service wing to E, projecting 3 bays to N, with machinery doors at ground and gabled dormerheads; decorative pantry/larder with French roof marked by gabled louvred ventilators, cast-iron finials and decorative timber brackets to overhanging eaves, adjoined at centre to N Billiard room adjoined to NE corner of tower. 3 bays long with steeply pitched window pediments to W.

2-leaf doors to porch with decorative cast-iron fittings. Wrought-iron tethering posts. Small-pane glazing patterns in sash and case windows; railings in addition to some ground floor windows. Grey slates; fish- scale to Bryce pepperpots. Lead finials to turrets. Barley sugar stacks to later Baronial blocks. Slate-hung gabled dormers added. Regrettable black brick stacks added at N. Decorative gutterheads and fixtures retained at intervals.

INTERIOR: largely refurbished by Bryce and Robert Lorimer. 2 stone vaulted tower rooms, both formerly with dividing timber floors. Ground floor room serving as entrance hall, with strapwork plaster ceiling, 19th century oak wainscott panelling; bolection moulded chimneypiece set in recess; cast-iron grate and dog irons; panelled embrasures. Beacon room (upper room) with ribbed vault and plaster corbels; hooded stone chimneypiece with cast-iron grate and decorative oriental tiles; bracketted timber gallery. Wide stairway with Jacobean newels, pendants and balustrade; leaded tripartite landing windows with 20th century stained glass armorial panels. Pair of white marble classical chimneypieces, strapwork plasterwork and decorative cornices to principal rooms. Library including organ, by Hill of Edinburgh, 1910, and ornately carved oak Jacobean chimneypiece bearing panel of possible 17th century Flemish origin; bolection moulded ashlar surround to fireplace.

TERRACES: squared and snecked sandstone terraces to Italian formal garden by S elevation, with square piers and ashlar coping; bowed section with niche.

Decorative wrought-iron gate to E Decorative bronze urns and stone lions, formally arranged.

SUNDIAL: 17th century, with 20th century shaft and obelisk finial. Sited at centre of Italian garden. Polyhedral (octagonal) sundial, restored on lines suggested by MacGibbon and Ross in approximation of its probable original form. Circa 6' high. Pierced form of dial and raised detail of faces, are most unusual.

Further important sundial, sited by walled garden, currently missing (1989).

Statement of Special Interest

Carberry tower passed through the hands of Hugh Rigg, Sir Adam Blair of Lochwood, and eventually to the Elphinstones at the start of the 19th century, being handed to the Church of Scotland in the 1960s, in whose

hands it remains as a conference centre (1989). The Main Gate, North Lodge, Stables (Elphinstone Wing), Carberry House and Gardens, Game Larder, and certain buildings formerly belonging to the estate at Springfield, are listed separately. Similarly, the monument at Carberry

Hill to Queen Mary's surrender in 1567, is entered independently. The work by Bryce at Carberry was recorded on a tracing made by Thomas Ross from one of his drawings, 1913.

References

Bibliography

RCAHMS INVENTORY No 117.

MacGibbon and Ross, CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC vol 111 pp430-2; vol v pp442-1 and pp437-8.

Thomas Hannan FAMOUS SCOTTISH HOUSES (1928).

John Small CASTLES AND MANSIONS OF THE LOTHIANS (1883).

C McWilliam LOTHIAN (1978) pp128-131.

Paul Burgess HEWN STONE - A SHORT ACCOUNT OF CARBERRY TOWER AND THE ELPHINSTONE FAMILY.

Peter Savage LORIMER AND THE EDINBURGH CRAFT DESIGNERS (1980) p175.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

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Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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Printed: 29/03/2024 10:12