Balgone House

Lothians: About 2 miles south and east of North Berwick, on minor roads south of A198 and north of B1377, at Balgone.

Private   NT 567825   OS: 67   EH39 5PB

OPEN: Self-catering accommodation.
Tel: 01620 894913   Web: www.balgoneestate.co.uk

Balgone House, an attractive long mansion, incorporates an early 17th-century L-plan tower house, with even older work. The older part rises to three storeys and an attic with corbiestepped gables. The mansion now has a long symmetrical main block with two projecting balustraded towers, and was remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. The house became ruinous but was restored in the 1990s.
  The kitchen was in the basement, and has a wide-arched fireplace. A turnpike stair led to the upper floors.
  ‘Balgon’ is marked on Blaeu’s map of The Lothians, then in an enclosed wooded enclosure on Adair’s map of East Lothian.
  Balgone was a property of the Rosses of Hawkhead, but passed to the Semples of Balgone, then by marriage to the Sutties of Addiston (or Adniston) in 1680. The family were made baronets of Nova Scotia in 1702, and Sir George, 3rd Baronet, and Sir James, 4th Baronet, were MPs for Haddingtonshire. The family name was changed to Grant-Suttie when the name of Grant was added with marriage to the heiress of the Grants of Prestongrange.
  The family held the house until the 20th century, and still own lands here.