arniston house

Please do not roll up to this charming 18th century house by William Adam expecting cafes, fair-grounds, dodgems and all the fol-de-rols which nowadays clutter the grounds of these places. You will not find them (take your own picnic).Instead you will find the daughter of the house collecting your money in perhaps an OXO tin and her Mother waiting to take you round. What a star she is. Mrs Dundas-Bekker, has with her late husband saved an important Scottish House from dereliction and decay. The plasterwork in the hall is voluptuous and sumptuous, the paintings are numerous and varied, but particularly Mr and Mrs 18th century Dundas playing chess, chinese armorial dinner service, lots of "things" But yet all is comfortable and domestic. Mrs D enlightens you on the history of the house and how she came to inherit, the battles with officialdom, her set-backs and her triumphs.....not least of which is the once-dry-rot ravaged drawing room which now shimmers with light reflected from the new silver-ground chinese wallpaper.We owe a lot to the likes of the Dundas's of this world. had it not been for them Arniston would have been the victim of endless wrangling and ended up like Mavisbank. www.mavisbank.org.A delight to visit, but don't arrive with a bus-load of people wanting tea and "fun"