Arniston House

This Georgian mansion was designed by William Adam in 1726 for Robert Dundas, of Arniston, the elder, the Lord President of the Court of Session.

[1] The Arniston Estate lands were a royal hunting park in the Middle Ages,[2] and were later owned by the Knights Templar, who gave the nearby village of Temple its name.

The estate was expanded, and improvements were made by James' grandson Robert Dundas (died 1726) in the late 17th century.

It was built over the foundations of the original 17th-century house,[1] but Dundas ran out of money during the building works, which were only completed after 1753.

The Royal coat of arms of Scotland in the pediment may have come from Parliament House in Edinburgh, which was refaced at the beginning of the 19th century,[2] around the same time that the porch and stair were added.

The landscape gardener Thomas White (1736–1811) planned a new park in 1791, in the informal style of Capability Brown, and planting continued into the 19th century.