Abbotsford

The following is from the Historic Environment Scotland Gardens and Designed Landscapes Inventory. For the most up-to-date Inventory entry, please visit the Historic Environment Scotland website:

Type of Site

A picturesque country seat and estate developed from an earlier farming landscape in the early 19th century, and which acquired fame as a popular visitor attraction through its strong association with Sir Walter Scott.

Location and Setting

Located immediately to the south of Galashiels, Abbotsford is a large designed landscape that encompasses nearly all of Sir Walter Scott's former estate, including associated properties at Huntlyburn and Chiefswood. The wider setting is the broad valley of the Tweed, a densely settled region characterised by the smooth, large-scale landform of the surrounding hills and the confluence of the meandering river with the Ettrick and Gala Waters. Abbotsford House itself, located towards the north-west of the designed landscape, occupies a gravel escarpment above the south bank of the Tweed and is surrounded by its core gardens, park and estate buildings. Views from here extend west across the river towards Gala hill and Touting Birks Hill, while longer-ranging views stretch north east along the Tweed corridor. Recent housing development around Galashiels is partially screened by the summer foliage of shelter-belts, but is otherwise visible from this, and other parts of the designed landscape.

Beyond the core area around Abbotsford House, estate woods and farmland extend towards the south and south east over undulating ground distinguished by two minor east-west ridges and the higher ground of Cauldshiels Hill. Minor roads follow the ridge-lines and link up with other tracks that ultimately connect the higher plantations and irregularly shaped fields with both Abbotsford and the farms below. To the east, the Huntly Burn flows from the higher ground towards the Tweed, passing close to Huntlyburn House and Chiefswood, which is surrounded by its own secluded gardens and woods in the extreme north eastern part of the designed landscape. Above, the upper slopes are characterised by large forestry plantations and the important archaeological site of Huntlyburn earthworks, scheduled as an ancient monument of national importance.

The boundary of the designed landscape has undergone recent revision (2004). Formed by the north bank of the Tweed, field boundaries, minor roads and the edges of woodland plantations, this boundary now encompasses some 559 hectares (1381 acres) and includes all of Scott's former estate except for Broomilees Farm and the area now occupied by the Borders General Hospital. Some contiguous tracts of land outwith the original estate, including the areas around Abbotslea Plantation, Mossbrae Plantations and Cauldshiels Loch in the south-west, have been included within the boundary on the basis of their evident similarity of design and the likelihood that Scott bore some influence on the plantation structure.

Landscape Components

Architectural Features

Abbotsford House, designed and built for Sir Walter Scott in 1817-24, is recognised as the prototype for the Scottish Baronial Revival. Developed on the site of a pre-existing farmhouse, it is the product of imaginative ideas put forward by Scott and a number of his friends, associates and advisors, with William Atkinson serving as executant architect for much of the work. With 2-storey whinstone and ashlar façades, the house features a courtyard wing to the south-west, a larger north-east wing with Baronial porch and a distinctive, picturesque roofline formed by crow-stepped gables, tall chimneys and pepperpot turrets. A further wing and Catholic Chapel were added later in the 1850s. Ornamentation in the quadrangular south courtyard derives from the embellished entrance gateway, a mounting block, or 'louping on stane', in the form of Scott's favourite dog, an eclectic array of stone sculpted artefacts on the courtyard walls, a multi-faced sundial, and a fountain, said to incorporate the bowl of the Old Mercat Cross of Edinburgh. The south courtyard, east courtyard (walled garden), and kitchen garden effectively form three distinct, enclosed garden spaces. The latter was built in the 1820s with brick-lined walls alongside a Gardener's Cottage c.1819 and contains a neat Gothic conservatory designed by Scott with help from the Darnick builder, John Smith. The courtyard plan stable block, c.1816-20 with later modification, stands to the west of the house and is now in poor repair. To the north-west (garden side) of the house, the prominent ice-house and game-larder was built into the north garden terraces c.1851. Topped by a viewing platform, this structure incorporates an earlier ice-house and features doors on two levels, castellated balustrades at terrace level and an ingenious seat over an air-vent. A rubble outbuilding and possible pig-sty are located within the mid 19th-century west court, a walled service court to the south-west of the house that features gas retorts on either side of the entrance-way. Notable architectural features near the foot of the drive meanwhile, include the ashlar-coped boundary wall, which runs parallel to the road, a two-storey gate-lodge bearing the inscription, 'IN.THE.LORD.IS.MY.HOPE.I.R.H.S. 1858', and closer to the west court, a 19th statue of Edie Ochiltree on a slab plinth. To the east of the designed landscape, Chiefswood House by John and Thomas Smith of Darnick in 1820-1, is a 2-storey, 4-bay gabled villa that partly incorporates an earlier 18th-century cottage. The adjacent, roughly rectangular walled garden features rubble walls and a low coped wall to the south with decorative cast-iron railings. A single-arched bridge spans Huntly Burn to the south-east of the house, while the nearby Monk's Well features a piece of carved stone believed to have been taken from Melrose Abbey by Sir Walter Scott. Huntlyburn House is another early 19th-century house, first constructed by John Smith c.1810 with subsequent earlier-mid 19th century and late 20th-century additions. Associated features include a walled garden and piend-roofed cottage and the remains of a former stable block with mounting block and adjacent U-plan double cottages.

Drives and Approaches

There is only one principal approach drive to Abbotsford. From a gate lodge on the main road, the drive ascends the bank to the north-east, with the house remaining out of sight until the terminating forecourt in front of the 1850s wing.

Paths and Walks

Paths and rides lead southwards from the terraces and forecourt to the woodland of Under Thicket and the haugh parkland. A timber bridge forms an underpass for a lower path close to the end of the terrace, while the Under Thicket paths connect up to allow a circular route through the woodland, with the option of returning via the riverside flood bank or across the haugh. A further yew-lined path, now virtually unused, leads into the woods just opposite the gate-lodge. While the paths around the house were maintained as private, Sir Walter Scott promoted free access to those paths and rides that traversed the wider estate and plantations during the 19th century (Lockhart 1878, vol.2: 535). In addition to the long and circuitous route to Huntlyburn and Chiefswood, paths headed upslope to Cauldshiels Loch, Rhymers Glen and Haxel Cleuch, where the 1838 plan depicts 'Sir Walter Scott's Ride' and 'Mr Charles Scott's Ride' on either side of the minor burn valley (1838, David Wilson). Few of these paths remain accessible or in use apart from part of the track to Cauldshiels Loch, which now forms a section of the long-distance Borders Abbey Way.

Parkland

The low-lying haugh on the Tweed floodplain forms the only area of parkland at Abbotsford, lying between the house and river and stretching south for just over half a kilometre. There is a fairly minimal cover of mature parkland trees here, planted in groups in front of the terraces and to the south, framing views of the Tweed. Scott records establishing large rootballed trees here in 1814. Today, the older specimens comprise oak, sycamore and a single old Wellingtonia, together with a younger birch. Recent restocking in the opening years of the 21st century has introduced further sycamore, lime, beech, oak, horse chestnut, ash and Scots pine, and one intrusive purple sycamore. The haugh is grazed by horses.

The woodlands at Abbotsford were mainly established by Sir Walter Scott in the early 19th century. While the composition of many of the plantations has changed, their essential structure endures. Thick shelter belts enclose large, irregular estate fields and more sizable plantations extend along the upper hill slopes. Scott took a close interest in both the aesthetics and the logistics of forestry and he was praised not only for choosing to plant the better land, against common practice, but also for planting with the lie of the land so as to enhance landscape views (Lockhart 1878, vol.2: 571). Today, Scott's own records and accounts from this period comprise an important historical resource for understanding the chronology and nature of the planting programmes, especially given the subsequent changes to the woodland cover. With the exception of some pine, spruce, and larch, used in nurseries and for shelterbelts, much of the original planting was of hardwoods. Today, the balance has shifted, with many of the plantations transformed through the introduction of conifers, unchecked regeneration or conversion to the spruce monoculture typical of commercial forestry. Haxel Wood and Mars Lee Wood, for example, now form large coniferous forestry zones. Surviving remnants of Scott's planting, however, may still be seen in the Home plantations around Abbotsford and the woods of Under Thicket, where the species mix includes impressive specimens of oak, beech, lime, sycamore, ash, Scots pine, and yew. Similarly, the woodlands around Chiefswood contain a decent number of attractive mature beech, sycamore and oak among the younger trees.

The Gardens

There are three main enclosed gardens to the east of Abbotsford House: the courtyard, walled garden and kitchen garden. The courtyard, originally an arrival court rather than a garden, was laid out in its present form during the 1850s. Beyond the gravel circulation area adjacent to the porch, it comprises a simple lawn with gravel paths and a centrepiece formed by a fountain and circular piece of grass. Historic photographs show that planting beds once radiated out from the fountain, and their faint outlines are still visible in the grass today.

Apart from this series of sheltered gardens, there is an area of lawns and terracing to the west and north-west of the house which affords views over the river Tweed. In the early 19th century, this area featured a grass bank from the Gate Lodge to the gardens, planted with trees by Scott in order to screen the house, and an oval bowling green, laid out by Scott in 1818 between the present ice-house and stables. The existing banks were modified in the 1850s by the Hope-Scotts who commissioned the construction of steeper and more defined earthworks, and who planted ornamental trees and shrubs, which were further supplemented in 1930-50. This area has now been cleared of overgrown shrubbery to re-open a walk and views to the house.

Chiefswood House is also surrounded by attractive, well-maintained gardens that retain much of their historical structure. The front lawn, with an unusual topiary yew, is fringed by the surrounding mixed woodland. To the south, a walled enclosure, with cross-axial paths, features fruit trees and an intricate pattern of box hedged compartments and an array of rose bushes. A further kitchen garden is cultivated to the north.

Walled Garden

The walled garden, or sunken garden, is also relatively simple, laid out as a lawn with grass banks, perimeter paths, and oval-form topiary yews at the corners and path ends. An herbaceous bed lines the north wall on the former site of Scott's vinery, removed during the 20th century; while wall shrubs and climbers such as cotoneaster and ivy grow along the other walls. A sundial stands at one end, while a statue of Morris, the excise man from the novel 'Rob Roy', stands at the other, placed there after Scott's death in 1832. To the east, the adjacent, rectangular kitchen garden occupies higher ground, and presents the most horticultural interest. Retaining its traditional 19th-century layout with perimeter paths and a central, worn-grass path between the gate and the Gothic conservatory, this garden features box-edged compartments and fine, well-maintained herbaceous borders along the central axis. While the walls are currently under-stocked, other compartments retain shrub roses, and some vegetables, fruit trees and bushes.