Mertoun House

Mertoun House is a fine mansion with lovely gardens by the River Tweed, with a fantastic walled garden, the scenic Old Mertoun House, and a wellpreserved doocot, long held by the Scotts and then by the Dukes of Sutherland, near Kelso in the Borders in southeast Scotland.

Borders: About 7 miles west of Kelso, 2 miles north-east of St Boswells, on minor road south of B6404, just north of the River Tweed, at or near Mertoun House.

Ruin or site   NT 618318   OS: 74   TD6 0EA

OPEN: House not open; gardens open Apr-Sep, Fri-Mon 14.00-18.00 (last entry 17.30). No dogs.
Web: www.mertoungardens.co.uk

Site of castle, marked on Blaeu’s map of Berwickshire as ‘Mertoun Tour’. This was replaced by what is now known as Old Mertoun House, a two-storey harled building of 1677, which may stand on the site of the tower and is in the 3-acre walled garden.

There is a well-preserved round doocot, dated 1576.

Mertoun House (also known as Harden House), built in 1703-05 for Sir Sir William Scott of Harden and designed by Sir William Bruce, was altered and extended in 1843 by William Burn and again in 1912. The foundation stone was exposed at this time, with the legend ‘Founded 10 Day of June 1703 Years by Sr. William Scott and Dam Jean Nisbet His Lady’. These extensions were demolished in the 1950s.

The castle was built by the Halyburtons, who held the property in the 15th and 16th centuries, and William Halyburton of Mertoun is on record in 1446 and John Halyburton of Mertoun in 1622. The property passed to the Scotts of Harden, Lords Polwarth from 1835, who held the property from 1672, or earlier, until 1912. Mertoun is now held by the Duke of Sutherland, while Old Mertoun House is used as the head gardener’s house, while the gardens are managed by a trust.

Mertoun Gardens consist of 26 acres of beautiful grounds with fine walks, river views, impressive trees, herbaceous borders, and flowering shrubs.