Mavisbank House, Lothian
Mavisbank was designed in 1722 by William Adam and Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, his patron, and completed in 1727. Mavisbank is the 'little villa' of Clerk's poem The Country Seat, to which Adam's book of designs, Vitruvius Scoticus, is closely related. The importance of the partnership between Clerk and Adam to the development of Scottish architecture cannot be overstated.
Mavisbank passed out of the Clerk family in 1815, becoming an asylum in 1876. Dr Harrowes, the last Medical Superintendent, bought the house in 1946. Archie Stevenson broke cars in the forecourt in the 1950s, and in the 1970s Mavisbank was gutted by fire. The 70 acres of designed landscape were acquired by Scottish Ministers in 1986, and although ownership of the house remained uncertain, the shell was secured by Historic Scotland, pending a resolution.
The Mavisbank Trust was established with the aim of managing Clerk's beautiful policy grounds as a Country Park. The villa will be restored for holiday letting, with interpretation and public access. The project team is led by Simpson & Brown and a portion of 'project development' funding has been conditionally secured. While many hurdles remain, there is some optimism that the project could be completed by 2007.
