Bath House, Corsham Court

The Gothic Bath House at Corsham Court was built by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown  is the only one of the three garden buildings which he designed at Corsham that still stands. It was later remodelled and further Gothicised by John Nash between 1797 and 1802. The ogee shaped arches, the windows, Gothic niches and the roof pinnacles all survive from Brown's original pavillion.

The Bath House was intended to provide an invigorating cold dip. The cold bath is sunk into an arcaded ground floor and a flight of steps leads to a dressing room above.The last member of the Methuen family to use it regularly was the Field-Marshal Lord Methuen (1846-1932).

In the Bath House a door leads into a narrow tunnel with stucco walls encrusted with fir cones, hazel twigs and the remains of moss. This leads into the Bradford Porch, a late-Medieval doorway with a fan-vaulted ceiling that was erected here as a summerhouse by the 4th Lord Methuen in 1968 having been brought from The Priory at Bradford-on-Avon, formerly a Methuen property. The major part of the Priory was demolished in 1936.

The major part of the Priory was demolished in 1936.

Hexagon, Inveraray

The Hexagon is a charming Gothick gazebo overlooking the The Millar's Lynn on the River Aray on the Inveraray estate. Built in 1802, the Hexagon was used as a fishing house by guests at the castle and most notably by Lady Elspeth Campbell, sister of the 10th Duke of Argyll. That lady was an expert with the rod and line who spent many (happy) hours fishing there. And such was her expertise that it was said; 'there was always salmon on the table when Lady Elspeth was at the castle'. Quite possibly the Hexagon was designed by Alexander Nasmyth, who was working at that time on the family's estate at Rosneath.

It is a great pity that one of Alexander Nasmyth's more ambitious designs was never built; a lighthouse he designed for Inveraray harbour, with battlemented parapets rising from a castellated tower, surmounted by a Chinese pavillion. What a sight that would have been.

Museum, Dunrobin Castle

The Museum at Dunrobin Castle started out as a gazebo or summer house, built in 1732 by William, 16th Earl of Sutherland.

The building, just outside the walled garden, was extended in 1878 by the 3rd Duke of Sutherland to create a private museum.

The 4th Duke of Sutherland and his wife,Millicent enlarged the collection. They were magpie-style collectors who added  bead work from Central Africa, Eskimo fishing equipment and Berber saddlebags. These and a plethora of other objects took their place in the cornucopia of curiosities, beside engraved Pictish stones, bird's eggs, fossils, a slipper belonging to Garibaldi, geological specimens, a (used) handkerchief of Queen Victoria's and the figure head of the 3rd Duke's yacht, 'Catania'.

However  in these days of political correctness it is the sheer scale of hunting trophies, from the bags of the 5th Duke of Sutherland, that take the breath away. It seems no animal was spared the attention of this enthusiastic big-game hunter. Elephant, giraffe, kudu, rhino, frogs, impala and basking sharks; gemsbok, turtles, and warthog compete for wall space with many, many, many other trophies.

Melville Tree House

The policies surrounding James Smith's late seventeenth century masterpiece, Melville House, are perhaps the last place one would expect to find a 'Scots Baronial' tree house. But there it is, witches hat roof emerging from the remains of an elderly cedar of Lebanon. If it had been my tree house it would have to be an elevated square pavilion with an ogee roof, to echo the original pavilions on the south side of the house.

Edzell Banqueting House

In the south east corner of the garden at Edzell, and projecting behind it is a small garden or banqueting house. This delightful wee gazebo imitates  in miniature a Scottish domestic house of the early seventeenth century, with  its twisted chimneys, its crow stepped gables and decorations above the windows , and its turnpike stair housed in a circular tower with a turret on top.

The decorative scheme of the garden is carried across the internal facade of the house. Over the window on the first floor on the garden side are Sir David's  monogram, SDL.

There are two rooms on the ground floor, the one on the garden side ribbed and vaulted with a stone bench running around the wall.

The upper room has a closet leading off in the turret, and a fireplace at the other end. Beneath the windows are small holes said to be gunloops. On display in this room is a, precious, carved wooden panel that came from the castle.

At the south west corner of the garden there had been at one time a bathhouse. An unprecedented luxury for early seventeenth century Scotland.

Dunmore Pineapple

The Dunmore Pineapple is one of the most extraordinary, extravagant and wonderful buildings in Scotland, or anywhere else. It was built in 1761 by John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore to create a sensational gazebo, or folly, in the larger of the two walled gardens at his ancestral home, Dunmore Park.

On the ground floor was a hothouse used for growing, among other things, pineapples.Smoke from the heating system was expelled from chimneys disguised as Grecian urns. Pineapples were 'discovered' by Christopher Columbus on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in 1493. They became a rare delicacy in Europe and were a  powerful symbol of wealth, hospitality and agricultural innovation.

The pineapple was used as a motif to decorate entrances, houses and interiors across Scotland, but nowhere to greater effect than the magnificent depiction of the fruit at Dunmore. The architect is unknown, but so well conceived was it that it is not only a visual tour de force, but so carefully constructed that for example, each of the serrated leaves is  drained individually to prevent  frost damage.

In 1970 the Dunmore Estate was broken up and sold in separate lots. The Pineapple was bought by the Countess of Perth who late sold it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1974. The Trust in turn leased the folly to the Landmark trust who let the two gardener's bothies(cottages) as holiday accomodation.