I Would Walk 500 More

Scottish castles and estates for which it’s worth going that extra mile

- Penny Churchill

MORE than 800 years of turbulent Scottish history sit lightly on the castellated walls of majestic Seton Castle near Longniddry, on the Firth of Forth, some 10 miles from Edinburgh’s vibrant city centre. Robert Adam’s last Scottish masterpiece, it sits in gracious splendour within 13½ acres of lush lawns and paddocks, surrounded by the rolling fields and woodland of East Lothian’s famous golf coast.

The castle, listed Category A, became Scotland’s most expensive private house when, in 2007, it was sold for a reputed £5 million. Now, following an ‘exacting’ restoration of both the fabric and the interior of the entire building, it remains Scotland’s most expensive house as it returns to the market priced at ‘offers over £8m’ through Savills (0131– 247 3738) and Rettie & Co (0131–220 4160).

Seton Castle was built on the site of Seton Palace, historic seat of the Earls of Winton,a title bestowed in 1600 on the 8th Lord Seton, Robert. It was held by his descendants until George Seton, the 5th Earl, was convicted of high treason in 1716, thereby forfeiting his titles and property. Centuries before, the palace was the ‘preferred retreat’ of Mary, Queen of Scots, and visited by successive kings from James IV to Charles II.

Following the 5th Earl’s fall from grace, the palace suffered 75 years of neglect and was eventually demolished when, in 1789, ​Col Alexander Mackenzie of the 21st Dragoons commissioned Robert Adam to build Seton Castle in his inimitable neo-Classical style. The demolition of the palace provided a ready supply of stone for the new building and, in June 1791, Adam dined with his client in the new house, on his last visit to Scotland before his death.