Gattonside
Village in Scottish Borders, Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gattonside is a small village in the Scottish Borders. It is located 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Melrose, on the north side of the River Tweed. In 1143, the lands of Gattonside were granted to the monks of Melrose Abbey by David I of Scotland.[2]
| Gattonside | |
|---|---|
The main road through Gattonside | |
  Gattonside Location within the Scottish Borders | |
| Population | 381 (2001)[1] |
| OS grid reference | NT544350 |
| • Edinburgh | 30 mi (48 km) NW |
| • London | 303 mi (488 km) SE |
| Civil parish |
|
| Community council |
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| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MELROSE |
| Postcode district | TD6 |
| Dialling code | 01896 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Modernist architect Peter Womersley lived in Gattonside at his self-designed house, The Rig, completed in 1957. The Rig was designated as a Category B listed building on 17 April 2007 as a "fine example of domestic house built by Peter Womersley".[3]
The village is linked to Melrose, on the opposite side of the River Tweed, by the 19th-century Gattonside Suspension Bridge, built in 1826. The plantation owner, Robert Waugh of Harmony Hall was a shareholder who on his death in 1832 left his shares to the poor of Melrose.[4] The bridge was designated as a Category A listed building on 15 March 1971. Its listing was amended to Category B in 1998.[5]
Gattonside House
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_670837_(cropped).jpg)
Gattonside House is a 19th-century country house in Gattonside, built between c.1808–1811 in the Classical style.[6] The earliest recorded owner is James Brown (d. 1816), owner of a Jamaican coffee plantation.[7] The house was occupied between 1821 and 1824 by Sir Adam Ferguson, Deputy Keeper of the Scottish Regalia and close friend of Sir Walter Scott.[8] The following owner of the property, retired banker George Bainbridge (c.1788–1839), employed local architect John Smith to enlarge it.[8] Following Bainbridge's death in 1839, the house had a number of occupiers, and from around the early 1890s appears to have been leased to tenants by Henry Mungall (c.1843–1911), a local provost and manager of the Fife Coal Company.[9] On Mungall's death, the property was sold to Edward Ebsworth (c.1848–1915) who commissioned Robert Lorimer to extend and alter it.[6] The house was sold by Ebsworth's relatives in the 1920s,[10] following which it was owned by Captain Francis Montgomerie (1887–1950), younger son of the Earl of Eglinton and Winton, whose family left in 1951.[11][12] Following a brief period of occupation by John Morgan,[13] the property was bought by the Brothers of Charity, who ran the house as St. Aidan's Care Home for the Mentally Handicapped from 1953 until 2009.[14][15] From the institute's departure in 2009, the property fell into a state of disrepair, and as of 2024 it was estimated that replacing the damaged roof alone would cost £850,000.[15] In 2025, the property was bought by Fortis Homes, a development firm, which announced plans to convert the house into apartments, and use its grounds to build new housing.[16] The house was designated as a Category B listed building on 15 March 1971 as "a well-detailed early 19th-century Classical villa".[8]
Notable residents
- Neil Murray, bassist who was born in Gattonside.[17]
- Peter Womersley, architect who lived at his self-designed Gattonside house, The Rig.[3]
Residents at Gattonside House
- Sir Adam Ferguson, Deputy Keeper of the Scottish Regalia.[8]
- General Alexander Duncan, officer of the East India Company army in Bengal.[18]
- Patrick Fraser, Lord Fraser, Senior Lord-Ordinary of Edinburgh Court of Session.[19]
- Captain George Swinton, politician.[20]
- John Morgan, 6th Baron Tredegar, peer and landowner.[21]
Gallery
Peter Womersley's self-designed home, The Rig, 2016.
Gattonside Suspension Bridge in 2020.
