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Remains of a symmetrical Palladian mansion house. Datestone high on the centre front states 'Arthur's Seat Built in the Year 1757-17..'. this date has led to suggestions that John Douglas may have been the architect, although the building's form and energy suggest earlier, possibly John Adam, times. Locally pronounced 'Wardis', the house is symmetrical about a stylish two-storey and full basement centre block with a pedimented centre raised above the wallhead, in a curious slatey ashlar. There is a grand central first-floor window with Gibbsian surround, and a staircase in half-hexagon bow to rear, Single storey quadrants link to square, two-storey wings, the east one much extended. The house is set in a designed landscape with remnants still showing both uphill to the north and downhill to the south. Gutted circa 1953, a restoration scheme, under Acanthus Douglas Forrest, began in 2005 to convert the mansion house (along with several other buildings within the Wardhouse Estate policies) into a residential development. A desk-based assessment was carried out by AOC in 2007 over part of the designed landscape (NJ53SE0042) in advance of proposed restoration of the mansion house and other buildings. This revealed that Wardhouse Estate has existed since the mid 16th Century, with the mansion house and designed landscape dating from the mid 18th Century. A walkover survey also carried out in 2007 by AOC to assess the condition of the designed landscape (see NJ53SE0042) also noted that the mansion house was in a ruinous state with no remaining roof, the interior considerably overgrown and littered with building debris. Photographic recording was also carried out in 2007.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)