Built / Designed For: Francis Charteris

House & Family History: The maternal grandfather of Francis Charteris purchased the Amisfield Estate (then called Newmilns) and re-named it after the family seat in Dumfriesshire. The House was demolished in 1928, but Colin McWilliams, writing in "The Buildings of Scotland: Lothian," gives us a wonderful description: the "principal front of seven bays with a rusticated basement; piano nobile with pedimented windows, and small upper windows beneath a cornice and balustrade; central Ionic portico on the arcaded basement; advanced end bays with the basement blind-arcaded to match."

Comments: Colin McWilliam calls Amisfield "the most important building of the orthodox Palladian school in Scotland…"

Garden & Outbuildings: The Stableblock of 1785, designed by John Henderson, is extant. It features five thermal windows on the front, with the center one enclosed in a rusticated arch with a pediment; there are ten blind arches to the east and six to the south. Also by Henderson is the Walled Garden of 1783, which Colin McWilliam calls "the chief monument of 18th century Neoclassicism in Lothian." This large garden features identical cylindrical towers on each of the four corners of its walls. Also extant is the 18th century Ice House on the River Tyne; two twin, two-story Gate Lodges; and a Temple (likely designed by Ware) that overlooks the River. The Temple has a Roman Doric prostyle portico of four columns with rustic belts and a Rococo frame in the pediment.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: 2.S. Vol. II, p. 154, 1855.

Country Life: Christopher Hussey, Jul 15, 1965.

House Listed: Demolished

Park Listed: Not Listed

Past Seat / Home of: Francis Charteris, 18th century.

Current Ownership Type: Demolished

Primary Current Ownership Use: Demolished

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No