Hamilton House, East Lothian

The house was built in 1626 as a replacement for Preston Tower for Sir John Hamilton, Lord Magdalens, who was a Senator of the College of Justice and the brother of the 1st Earl of Haddington. The property was vacated by the Hamiltons in the 1740s, and in the 19th century it was converted into a barracks and later used as a tavern. Around 1880 the Hislop family are recorded as being the owners of the building. Eventually the building fell into dereliction and was about to be demolished when it was sold to The National Trust of Scotland in 1937 and the NTS restored it as a private residence. It is now a Category A Listed Building.

Hamilton House comprises a two-storey main block with projecting wings at either end. The date 1628 (or 1626) appears in a panel above the former main entrance, with the initials IH and KS representing Sir John Hamilton, Lord Magdalen, and Katherine Sympson, while thee three pediments of the dormers have the Hamilton's coat of arms, their impaled initials and the date 1628, as well as the arms of Katherine Sympson. The exterior is harled and whitewashed, has chamfered stone edges and crow-stepped gables, known in Scots as corbie-stepped. The chimney stacks have stripped quoins. The house has a hexagonal stair tower which stands in the corner of the main block with south wing and which…