Guided Tours to Mellerstain House & Floors Castle. Two outstanding properties of significant historical, architectural and cultural interest

Mellerstain House

You should arrive at Mellerstain (TD3 6LG) by 11.00am prompt, where we shall start our visit with morning tea/coffee & scones, followed by a private guided tour.

A somewhat plain exterior, partly by William Adam, behind which are some of the most exquisite original untouched interiors by his son Robert.

The crowning glory of the library at Mellerstain is its plasterwork ceiling, still decorated in Robert Adam’s green-and-white colour scheme and incorporating three painted medallions by Antonio Zucchi. There is a significant art collection including works by Van Dyck, Ruysdael, Gainsborough, Ramsay and other Old Masters. The Baillie family, Mellerstains’ creators and now Earls of Haddington, still use the grand reception rooms to entertain – rooms that have scarcely changed since the 1770s.

Floors Castle

Following the visit to Mellerstain, we travel to Floors Castle (TD5 7RL) for a self-pay lunch. You can choose between the Courtyard Café or the Terrace Café or take a picnic. The guided tour will commence at 2.30pm.

Floors Castle, the home of the Dukes of Roxburgh, was originally designed in Palladian style by William Adam in 1721. By 1837, tastes had changed, and the 6th Duke commissioned William Playfair to remodel the castle into a fairy-tale palace with a roofscape so fantastical it can scarcely be believed. Turrets (there must be at least 70) stand in silhouette against the sky, with ogee caps resembling the tents of a medieval army.

This huge mansion – Floors is reputedly the largest house in Britain, with 154 rooms and 365 windows – houses 17th-century Gobelins tapestries, paintings by Matisse, Bonnard, Oriental ceramics and French and English Furniture.

Photo credit: By ArchaicW – Own work, CC0
Photo credit: By Hogweard – Own work, Public Domain,