Haltoun House
Encyclopedia
Ratho
Ratho is a village and civil parish in the west of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian. Newbridge and Kirkliston are other villages in the area. The Union Canal passes through Ratho. Edinburgh Airport is situated only 4 miles ...
, in the west of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
City Council area, Scotland. It was formerly in Midlothian
Midlothian
Midlothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....
, and it was extensively photographed by Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
in September 1911.
Proprietors
The earliest known proprietor, John de Haltoun, parted with it by sale on 26 July 1377 when King Robert IIRobert II of Scotland
Robert II became King of Scots in 1371 as the first monarch of the House of Stewart. He was the son of Walter Stewart, hereditary High Steward of Scotland and of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert I and of his first wife Isabella of Mar...
confirmed it and all its pertinents upon a court favourite
Favourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
, Alan de Lawedre of Whitslaid
Whitslaid Tower
Whitslaid Tower was an ancient Berwickshire seat of the Lauder family for over 300 years. It is today a ruin high above the eastern bank of the Leader Water, south of the burgh of Lauder, in the Scottish Borders...
, Berwickshire
Berwickshire
Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...
, & The Bass. Alan and his wife, Alicia Campbell, had already been confirmed (1371) in the adjoining lands of Norton. Sir George de Lawedre of Haltoun
George de Lawedre of Haltoun
Sir George de Lawedre of Haltoun was a Burgess and Provost of Edinburgh in the early 15th century.-Family:...
, Knt., Lord Provost of Edinburgh, their second son, was given Haltoun, and adopted Arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
with differences from The Bass family, from then on establishing the Haltoun cadet branch. George died about 1430. J.Stewart Smith (1898) lists the Haltoun lairds and states that the "first laird of Haltoun was Sir George de Lawedre who married a sister of Lord Douglas", being Helen, daughter of Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas, 'The Grim' (d.1400).
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
, Richard Lauder of Haltoun, settled them upon his younger daughter. Richard Lauder was a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Edinburghshire in 1621, and in 1647 and 1648 was on the Committees of War for Edinburgh. He was also Commissioner of Excise
Excise
Excise tax in the United States is a indirect tax on listed items. Excise taxes can be and are made by federal, state and local governments and are far from uniform throughout the United States...
in 1661. He died in November 1675 in Holyrood Abbey
Holyrood Abbey
Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded...
, Edinburgh, and was interred in Ratho
Ratho
Ratho is a village and civil parish in the west of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian. Newbridge and Kirkliston are other villages in the area. The Union Canal passes through Ratho. Edinburgh Airport is situated only 4 miles ...
Church on the 29th. His portrait (right), by John Scougal
John Scougal
John Scougal was an early Scottish painter.Of a respectable family, being a cousin to Patrick Scougal , Bishop of Aberdeen, John Scougal is said to have been born at Leith, where his father had a residence, and where several of his works were still in the Town Hall in the nineteenth century.In the...
, hangs in Thirlestane Castle
Thirlestane Castle
Thirlestane Castle is a castle set in extensive parklands near Lauder in the Borders of Scotland. The site is aptly named Castle Hill, as it stands upon raised ground. However, the raised land is within Lauderdale, the valley of the Leader Water. The land has been in the ownership of the Maitland...
.
His second daughter, Elizabeth married, in 1652, Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale
Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale
Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale , was the second son of John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale ....
and carried Haltoun to him. Haltoun was much closer to Edinburgh than Thirlestane Castle, and with the loss of Lethington the Maitlands made Haltoun House their principal residence (as opposed to seat) until 1792 when the 8th Earl of Lauderdale sold the estate for £84,000 to Miss Henrietta Scott of Scotstarvet, who married William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland. The estate was then 2000 acres (8.1 km²) of excellent land, the revenue at the time: £3000 per annum. Her trustees sold the estate in 1797 to James Gibson of Ingleston, afterwards Sir James Gibson-Craig, 1st Baronet of Riccarton
Riccarton, Edinburgh
Riccarton is an area in Edinburgh's Green Belt, in Scotland. It is mainly undeveloped, with much farmland and few houses.Riccarton is to the west of the Edinburgh City Bypass , and is known for being the location of Heriot-Watt University's main campus, as well as the Heart of Midlothian F.C...
. An early example of an asset-stripper, he broke up the estate into lots, of which that including Haltoun House and 500 acres (2 km²) was bought by the Reverend Thomas Randall (who afterwards took the surname of Davidson). He sold Haltoun House to the Earl of Morton
Earl of Morton
The title Earl of Morton was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1458 for James Douglas of Dalkeith. Along with it, the title Lord Aberdour was granted. This latter title is the courtesy title for the eldest son and heir to the Earl of Morton....
in 1870, whose son Lord Aberdour sold it to James McKelvie in 1898. In 1915 it was sold to William Whitelaw, chairman of the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
company.
Haltoun House
The first Lauders built a massive Pele Tower at Haltoun before 1400, which Hannan refers to as "an L-shaped castle with walls of a uniform thickness of about 10 feet (3 m)." Sir William Lauder of Haltoun was a confidant of both King James IIJames II of Scotland
James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...
and the Earl of Douglas. In 1452 he was the King's personal messenger, sent to escort Douglas to Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
on a Royal promise of absolute safety, whereupon the Earl was murdered by the King. Haltoun Tower was subsequently besieged by the Douglas followers and during that siege Sir William Lauder was killed. The tower and battlements were subsequently restored to good condition by the King, at Exchequer expense.
The castle became the nucleus of the subsequent greater country house which was built onto and around it. On the east face of the south-east angle tower was a sundial with the monogram "C.M.E.L" for Charles Maitland & his wife Elizabeth Lauder, the monogram being divided by the date 1664, the year in which Maitland commenced dramatic new extensions to the old castle. His son John added the east front in a Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
style in 1696 and 1704. It was restored in 1859 and in 1870 the windows were altered.
The interiors were entered through a small entrance hall, pannelled in oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
brought from Letheringham
Letheringham
Letheringham is a sparsely populated civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal in Suffolk, England, on the Deben River.-Sights:St Mary is a tiny church, the remains of the tower and nave of a Priory church, and sits in a farmyard...
Abbey, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, into the main hall, 50 feet (15.2 m) by 20, pannelled also with a magnificent finely-made Jacobean
Jacobean architecture
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James I of England, with whose reign it is associated.-Characteristics:...
plaster ceiling. Other rooms included a mornign room, situated between the library and dining room (both also pannelled in Oak). On the first floor the saloon and drawing rooms were fitted out with Memel pine panelling, greatly used in Scottish country houses at the time. 'Lord Jeffrey's study' in the tower, was a nine-sided decorative room, with much gilt. The centre of the ceiling was a painting of a man flying away with a lightly clothed female - a classical motif.
Haltoun House was approached by an original avenue, half a mile long, abutted by tall elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
s and beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
es, lime trees, hollies, Yews
Taxus
Taxus is a genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m...
, and rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
s. The principal entrance was at the east through massive gate pillars.
In 1952 the house caught fire, and was demolished in 1955, during a period when many other similar country houses suffered a similar fate. All that remains are the terraces along the south side of the house with a two-story pavilion at each end.
The grounds currently support rare habitats for greater-crested newts, tree moles, bats and land puffins; all protected species.