Kailzie (also known as West Kelloch)

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

Type of Site

Inner parkland policies of a former 18th to 19th-century country estate containing a large walled garden and wild garden, renovated and redesigned in the later 20th century, and a range of mainly 19th-century estate buildings. The gardens are open to the public and form part of a more widely developed visitor attraction that is also noted for an osprey watch centre.

Location and Setting

The designed landscape comprises the inner policies of the former estate of Kailzie. Located 2 miles (3km) to the east of Peebles, the grounds are set within the upland valley of the Middle Tweed, a landscape characterised by the meandering river channel, flat valley floor, steep, enclosing uplands, and increasing suburban development along the lower ground. Defined largely by a perimeter stone dyke, the garden, parks and woods of Kailzie occupy an area of mostly flat ground immediately to the south of the Tweed. From here, views extend across the valley towards Glentress Forest and the Leithen and Moorfoot Hills to the north, while Kailzie Hill rises steeply to the south. Kailzie Burn, which drains the hilly ground to the south, flows through the policies from south to north and is now the focus for the Burnside Walk and associated woodland garden. Although located on the valley floor, Kailzie lies at some 600 feet (170-180m) above sea-level and is susceptible to severe winters and hard frosts, a climate that determines much of the plant selection in the walled garden. This small designed landscape encompasses 76ha (187ac). While the wider estate of Kailzie once incorporated the agricultural land on the hillsides to the south and west, the designed landscape more readily discernible today is contained by the river to the north and the minor B0762 road from Peebles to Traquair to the south and west.

Landscape Components

Architectural Features

Kailzie House, built 1803, was demolished in 1962. Close to its former site is an excellent example of a two-storey lectern dovecot with dated lintel stone of 1698. Built on a square plan, the rubble-built structure features ashlar quoins, crow-stepped gables, ogival skewputts, and a wall-head finished with three ornamental ball finials. Two former game larders stand to the east, housed within a single-storey, piend-roofed building, built c.1810. The contemporary, rectangular walled garden (built 1811), with very high, whinstone rubble walls, incorporates a late 19th-century Mackenzie and Moncur glasshouse range, a garden house, sundial, and distinctive wrought-iron gates and railings. The stable courtyard, also constructed 1811, comprises a single-storey plus attic range, originally for kennels, stabling, haylofts and worker accommodation. Built from coursed whinstone rubble, and now housing the restaurant, this complex incorporates a near-symmetrical, classical courtyard entrance, gothic detailing and projecting crenellated screens on the north front. The main north-west entrance to Kailzie is flanked by twin lodges built 1803 with later remodelling in classical style by J. M. Dick Peddie in 1920. They partially adjoin tall, octagonal ashlar gatepiers, which stand at either side of the entrance-way. On the other side of the designed landscape, the East Lodge, with timber porch, is a good example of a picturesque vernacular lodge, built c.1880 from local materials.

Drives and Approaches

Three separate entrance drives converge near the former site of Kailzie House. The earliest is almost certainly the principal north-west drive, depicted on maps drawn up in the 1770s, and which probably replaced an older, straight approach from the north (Armstrong 1775; Roy 1747-50s; Taylor and Skinner 1775). This main drive leads through parkland via the formal entrance-way, with its distinctive paired lodges and gatepiers. Earlier Ordnance Survey editions show this route to be lined with trees from the mid 19th to earlier 20th centuries, a landscape feature now partially replaced by later 20th century avenue planting. The two other entrance routes were established by the early 19th century. Although the lodge at the southern entrance was lost during the 20th century, the south drive is otherwise intact as it curves through woodland and over the Kailzie Burn. The east drive, meanwhile, is the longest of the three. It skirts the southern edge of the parkland and passes the heritage tree, the Kailzie Larch. Although this drive fell out of use during the mid-20th century, the route endures as a trackway leading towards the gardens from the picturesque east lodge.

Parkland

Parkland extends over the flat valley ground to the north and east of Kailzie gardens. Originally part of the landscaped setting for Kailzie House, demolished in 1962, these parks contain a dispersed scatter of mature specimen trees. These are the remnants of an originally more dense distribution of sycamores, limes and other mixed broadleaves. The most famous tree is the Kailzie Larch, which is among the oldest surviving European larches planted in Scotland in 1725. Located by the east drive, this heritage tree is a good specimen with a straight trunk and girth of 4.8m measured at a height of 1.22m above the ground (Rodger et al. 2003: 22).

The first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps reveal that the present parkland structure was achieved in stages (1855-8, OS and 1897-8 OS). By the mid-19th century, parkland extended only mid-way across the designed landscape, bounded by a central north to south woodland strip. Half a century later, the fields further to the east had also been planted, and the central woodland strip largely removed, thus ensuring a more complete and extensive parkland setting. A few young trees planted in more recent decades will help ensure the future continuation of the parkland design at Kailzie. Occupying the lower slope of Kailzie Hill, the park in the most southerly area of the designed landscape is known as the Tea Field on account of past excursions to a former summerhouse. The curious, circular, stone-rubble structure, which looks more like a folly than a conventional summerhouse, and which is in a ruinous state, proves a good vantage point for views over the rest of the parkland and the wider valley landscape setting of Kailzie.

Woodland

Like other components of the designed landscape, the present woodland structure at Kailzie was mainly established during the 19th century. The principal, core woodlands that partially surround the walled garden, estate buildings and former house site are composed of mature deciduous trees and a range of coniferous specimens, many of which were initially planted to adorn the lawns of the old house. This managed woodland now forms an attractive setting for restored woodland paths and presents a textured canopy that enhances local views from in and around the designed landscape. The other main area of woodland is Drive Wood, a long planted strip that extends along the slope above the east drive and which was formed through additional late 19th century planting projects. Today, mature deciduous trees such as birch and beech flank the drive and conceal rows of younger trees planted above.

Woodland Garden

The late 20th century garden renovation project included the development of a wild garden in the woods to the south of the stable courtyard. Incorporating 19th century paths, the Burnside Walk follows the Kailzie Burn, while the Major's Walk leads over a footbridge towards the open lawn and duck pond by the site of the old house. Beneath the canopy of the mature trees, smaller ornamental trees and shrubs adorn the paths and include two Katsura trees (Cercidiphyllum), autumn flowering and bird cherries, (autumnalis rosea, Prunus serotina), Laburnum, Rhododendron, Azaleas, Meconopsis and Amelanchiers. Bamboo and Gunnera grow near the burn, while recent woodland management to create clearings has encouraged the growth of snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells (www.kailziegardens.com ).

Walled Garden

The large walled garden is the most well known part of the present designed landscape. Originally built in 1811, the traditional kitchen garden had fallen into disuse during the earlier-mid 20th century before the present owner, Lady Angela Buchan-Hepburn, took on the task of restoration and redesign in 1965. The present distinctive garden is the product of continuous development since then. Apart from a private lawn in the north-east corner, it consists of a sequence of secluded 'garden rooms', formed by copper beech hedging and interlinked by iron gates. There is a restored late 19th century glasshouse range along the north wall by Mackenzie and Moncur. The glasshouse, with its projecting, gabled plant house, accommodates an old Wisteria, Geraniums, Begonias, Schizanthus, Pelagoniums and Fuschias. Outside, plants benefitting from the small sheltered garden spaces include a great variety of roses, climbers and Potentillas, cultivated in long herbaceous borders and in precisely arranged island beds. The south-west corner of the garden is retained for vegetable beds and fruit trees. Distinctive design features in the walled garden include traditional elements. The wide axial grass paths that intersect at a central sundial provide unity and a link with the form of the older garden, for example. Geometric and rounded topiary box sculptures catch the eye, while smaller meandering paths, seats and garlanded arbours help create a 'secret garden' atmosphere (Lambert and King 2008: 468). Just beyond the west wall of the garden, an oval Victorian fountain has been installed in a lawn surrounded by a range of deciduous and coniferous specimen trees.