Bemersyde House

http://portal.historic-scotland.gov.uk/hes/web/f?p=PORTAL:DESIGNATIONS:0

Type of Site

Long-established house and grounds featuring ancient woodlands and a heritage tree. The garden grounds are notable for Field Marshal Haig's sunken garden of the 1920s. Other late 19th and 20th century features include a partially surviving walled garden with glass-house and a maturing woodland garden to the south-east of the gardens.

Location and Setting

Bemersyde is located above the River Tweed just over a mile (2km) upstream from Newtown St Boswells. Topographically, the region is characterised by the strongly meandering course of the river, moderately rolling landform and prominent conical and dome-shaped hills. The celebrated viewing point known as 'Scott's View', which takes in the distinctive peaks of the Eildons, is located just north of the designed landscape, while the scenic qualities of the region as a whole have been recognised through the designation of the Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area. Bemersyde occupies a relatively prominent site at 160m above sea-level, and the canopy of the woods and top of the tower can be seen from Scott's View. Similarly, from the upper storeys of Bemersyde House, views extend across Lauderdale, the Tweed Valley and as far south as the more distant Cheviot Hills. At ground level, shelterbelts enclose most of the park and garden areas, and protect them from prevailing south-westerly winds. To the north and west, the ground slopes down towards the river bank where the strip of surviving ancient woodland has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Encompassing 55ha (136ac), Bemersyde is one of the smallest designed landscapes in the Scottish Borders. It is bounded by the river bank to the north and west, shelterbelts and the minor B6356 road to the east, and a field boundary to the south.

Landscape Components

Architectural Features

Bemersyde House consists of a central late-medieval tower flanked by lower east and west wings. It has a long and complicated architectural history, with numerous episodes of rebuilding and enlargement. The sandstone rubble tower, with 4 storeys plus attic and a parapet walk on its north and south walls, was partly rebuilt in the later 16th century and is said to incorporate moulded stones from the nearby Dryburgh Abbey. The wings were erected in the second half of the 18th century. The west wing was remodelled and heightened in the 1860s, only to be restored to its original height in 1959-61. Adjacent mid-19th-century stables comprise a single-storey south range with central pediment, and opposite, a similar north range, heightened c.1920s. A decorative brick wall with pale sandstone coping, screens the stables from the gardens to the south. An octagonal-plan sundial, inscribed 'Bemersyde 1691' and mounted on a substantial stepped pedestal base and baluster, forms an impressive centrepiece. A restored summerhouse to the east of the lawn and garden area houses information panels for visitors.

Drives and Approaches

The main access route to the house and gardens leads westward from the hamlet of Bemersyde. From a lodge, the short drive ascends through mixed deciduous woodland, with a subsidiary drive forking off towards the kitchen garden area north of the house. To the north west, a riverside path originating from the old fording point of Monksford connects with a longer track that curves and ascends towards Bemersyde through a strip of woodland.

Parkland

The grass meadows of Bemersyde extend downslope from the house and core woodlands towards the Tweed. Grazed by livestock, they are partly enclosed by mixed deciduous shelterbelts and the woodland strip that lines the track to the riverbank. Early Ordnance Survey editions depict them as mostly devoid of trees, a characteristic that endures in the present landscape. Exceptions include the few remaining horse-chestnuts in the undulating park to the west of the house, and a ring of lime trees planted c.1830 on the slope to the north of the house.

Woodland

Although not extensive in terms of area, the mature Bemersyde woodlands are prominent in local landscape views. Structurally, they comprise long-established policy plantations around the core of the designed landscape, a woodland strip that flanks the track down to the river bank, and a swathe of ancient woodland along the bank of the River Tweed. Here, the range and diversity of woodland flora and fauna together with supporting documentary and cartographic evidence from the 1700s, indicates the longevity of deciduous woodland, the importance of which is recognised through its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). In the spring, a profusion of wild flowers grows beneath the canopy of oak, yew and other broadleaf trees. Closer to the house, the mixed woodlands retain a structure established during the 18th and 19th century and maintained through subsequent replanting projects. Occasional veteran broadleaves stand among the younger spruce, beech and elm, while a path along the southern edge of the designed landscape leads through an attractive beech avenue, devised by the Field Marshall Earl Haig in the early 20th century.

Woodland Garden

At the bottom of the gardens, to the south and south east of the summerhouse, a range of trees bear witness to an arboretum created in the 1950s to 1970s, partly with specimens gifted from the Royal Botanical Gardens and partly through supplementary additions made in the late 20th century. Specimens present include red oaks, a Wellingtonia and Monkey Puzzle, and a small collection of maples and Sorbus. An understorey of Rhododendron and Azalea bushes, together with many naturalised daffodils, adds colour and texture to this woodland garden space.

The Gardens

The garden grounds extend from the south front of Bemersyde house and comprise an approximately rectangular-shaped area of lawn bordered by woodland. The present scheme is a relatively simple one, in which garden elements of different eras co-exist. Close to the gravel forecourt of the house, the gnarled, veteran sweet chestnut is by far the most ancient feature. Current estimates place it between 500 and 800 years old, with popular tradition claiming this 'Covin' or 'Trysting' tree to have been planted by family founder, Petrus de Haga himself in the late 12th century (www.bordersforesttrust.org ). Although the original trunk is now dead, layers taken by the 2nd Earl in the 1950s have resulted in healthy stems shooting up from the base. The inscribed sundial, fixed on its substantial pedestal on the main lawn terrace is a feature of the late 17th to 18th century gardens, while the large yews in the centre of the garden bear witness to an ornate, 19th century arrangement of tree-lined parterres. The structure of this former, more complex garden space can be traced via historic maps and aerial photographs that show up faint undulations in the lawn, and thus reveal an approximately square garden, divided into quadrants by axial paths.

Today, within this largely grassed-over space, the most colourful features are those devised during the 20th century. Surrounded by a low, retaining stone wall, the sunken garden in the south-eastern sector was a creation of the Field Marshal Earl Haig in the years following the First World War, and his surviving plans and notes on its design are of particular historic value. Although the 2nd Earl later simplified the arrangement through the removal of some flower beds, the symmetrical form of this small, partly-paved garden remains essentially unchanged. At the centre, crazy-paving paths intersect at a small, circular pond. The lawn quadrants extend outwards and up two steps to where mostly low-growing alpine plants grow along the wall. Close by, an avenue of brick pillars anchor wooden trellising on which roses and other climbers grow. A more recent feature is the luxuriant bed that extends along the brick wall to the east of the east wing. The late 2nd Earl's widow is a knowledgeable gardener, and has created a flourishing show of colour and foliage in this part of the Bemersyde garden.

Walled Garden

The kitchen garden to the north-west of the house is now only partly cultivated. It was built and developed during the second half of the 19th century and originally featured intersecting axial paths within a regular, six-sided walled enclosure (1896-8, OS 25'). The area under cultivation was reduced by about a half during the mid 20th century, although the potting range and grassed-over mounds of former vegetable beds remain. A late-20th-century tennis court occupies the former south west quadrant of the garden. Now, the chief surviving elements of the Victorian enclosure include the northern brick wall, which divides the garden from the sloping field to the north, some wall-trained fruit and free-standing apples, and a glasshouse range, now used for cultivating a profusion of flowers, tomatoes, peaches and figs. Within the sheltered area of the enclosure, low box hedging surrounds the remaining planted and well-maintained vegetable plots.