Ancestral Modernism

Leuchie Walled Garden, East Lothian A home of Sir Hew and Lady Dalrymple A Modernist home created during the 1960s within the walled garden of a historic house stylishly blends the contemporary and the historical.

- Mary Miers

CLOISTERED in the walled garden at Leuchie near North Berwick, the home of the Dalrymple family is one of an interesting clutch of Mid-Century Modern designs that were integrated into the garden structures of a his- toric house. The group, which includes Trevor Dannatt’s Pitcorthie in Fife of 1968, the walled garden houses at Hurley, Berkshire (Walter Goddard, 1956) and in Henley-on-Thames (Francis Pollen,1959), and Pollen’s 1976 Lake House on The Grange estate in Hampshire, drew inspiration from vernacular sources, mixing natural and manufactured materials in unpretentious, carefully crafted designs.

Leuchie Walled Garden and its Georgian predecessor (Leuchie House, today a respite home) were described by Mark Girouard in two articles published the year after the Modern house was built (COUNTRY LIFE, October 12 and 26, 1961). Six decades later, the story has been enriched in several ways: the architect Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith recently shared memories of the commission, his first major house project, and last year, Robert Dalrymple published an affectionate account of growing up here in the 1960s. In 2020, Gray Macpherson Architects completed a sensitive remodelling in collaboration with the present owners, Sir Hew Dalrymple, and his wife, Janey, who has updated the interiors to suit the house’s new role as a stylish holiday let. With this new chapter in the story of Leuchie, it seemed timely to revisit.