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Walled garden and site of walled garden built in 1872, depicted on the historic OS maps, formerly part of Duff House. Early maps show the gardens cover an extensive area on the east side of Low Street, bounded to the north by Bridge Street, to the west by what is now Temple View and the south by what is now the A98. The northern section of the garden has been removed and replaced with housing, although the brick and stone boundary wall still survives to the north and east. The southern section, home to the vinery and a bothy, continues to be expressed as a garden, and also includes parts of Airlie House which once stood on this site before it was replaced by Duff House, built some distance to the south. The gardens were developed in the 1860s by Lady Agnes, wife of the 5th Earl of Fife. They included a palm house and other structures that have since been removed. The stone staircase in the centre of the extant walled garden is attributed to Airlie House (NJ66SE0067), along with the stone-built square tower (probably late 17th century) in the northeast corner of the garden. In the second half of the 19th century it was used for storing of fruit. Airlie Gardens was known as the flower garden at the time the vinery was built, the kitchen garden sited further north (the location of the present sheltered housing). For earlier gardens of Duff House see NJ66SE0301. A section of the north boundary wall, behind Nos. 21-23 Bridge Street, began to fail in 2011 and scheduled for repair in 2012. A programme of repairs to the brick-built wall enclosing the southern portion of the garden were carried out in 1981. Bricks salvaged from a granary on St Catherine Street (NJ66SE0182) were used in the repair work. The wall which was repaired was a 19th century double-skinned garden wall with an internal cavity area the air in which was heated by a small furnace for the purpose of promoting growth in fruit crops thereby overcoming adverse weather conditions which would set back crop growth. A watching brief was carried out during ground-breaking works over three site visits from May 2021 to May 2022 by AKD Archaeology prior to redevelopment of the Bothy And Vinery. No significant archaeology or artefacts were uncovered, the primary deposits recorded represented modern activity. Within the Bothy these represented made ground, and within the Vinery these represented garden soil associated with the former use for growing plants. Photographic recording of the tower was carried out in April 2022 ahead of proposed alterations.
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Historic Environment Records (HER)