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Orchard House
Orchard House lies within the Walled Garden of Whitehill House, a nearby mansion house built in 1844 for the fabulously wealthy Ramsay family. At one time the Walled Garden contained an enormous Victorian glasshouse heated by a boilerhouse which also blew warm air through the cavity brick wall built round the garden. This helped create a microclimate and gave protection to the orchard fruits.
Orchard House is named after the “Auld Orchard” (as it was called by locals) which used to exist within the Walled Garden. The house is in the style of a traditional country farmhouse with a granary/cartshed to the rear and a stone built “byre” (cow shed) attached. The red clay tiles on the roof of the byre are called pantiles. These were handmade in the Netherlands in the early 19th century and were used as ballast on sailing ships that sailed to the Low Counties from Scotland laden with wool and whisky.
Much of the rest of the buildings were constructed from materials salvaged from a chapel that had originally been attached to Whitehill House. The stained glass windows and oak doors that originally adorned the chapel have been used extensively throughout the house and provide a most pleasing ambience. Most of the brick was made locally in the 19th century but some of the older hand made bricks have been traced to nearby Newbattle Abbey which dates from the 13th century.
The original road from Temple Village –aka Balantradoch, (two miles to the South) which was the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the 12th and13th centuries and Rosslyn Chapel (two miles to the North) originally cut straight through the Walled Garden. In 1850 the Walled Garden was built and the road routed round the outside. Orchard House was built on top of this original Templar road.
At night due to the absence of street lights you can watch the stars and on occasion catch the aurora borealous (the Northern Lights)
There is ample free secure parking within the grounds of Orchard House.
Some three hundred yards from Orchard House is Whitehill House which has a challenging par 70 nine hole golf course. Rounds may be booked in on your behalf.
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