Bemersyde House

Bemersyde House is a large occupied mansion sat on high ground overlooking the valley of the River Tweed a short distance downstream of its confluence with the Leader Water. The buildings are built around an old rectangular peel tower of the 16th century, with extensions on three sides. The house is available as a luxury let at the time of writing, and is surrounded by a private estate. It is not visible from public roads.

The lands of Bemersyde were granted to Hugh de Morville by King David I, and subsequently to Peter del Hage, probably one of the Morville retainers. The earliest charter to have survived, however, is the resignation charter of 1490, when the laird James granted the lands to his son William. It may have been William who founded the building prior to his death at Flodden in 1513. The castle was attacked by the English in 1545, and is described as the manor-place in 1554, suggesting that it was perhaps a less impressive building than it is today. In 1581 the tower was heightened to five storeys, with a stone vault added like that at Smailholm, presumably a defence against fire, and it was reroofed in about 1690, perhaps gaining a further storey at that date. The continuous parapet has open rounds at each corner, and there is an attic-house at this level. The west wing was added in 1760, and the east wing in 1796; the west wing being substantially enlarged by Lord Jerviswood in about 1859 when he leased the place, although the roofline of the extension was lowered again in 1960.

The tower as it started out consisted of a modest rectangular tower with a double-height vaulted basement containing a timber-floored mezzanine floor, entered at ground level in the south side. There was a small entrance lobby in the thickness of the wall, leading to the basement and a mural stair in the south-east corner which served all floors; the mezzanine level was presumably reached via a latter and trapdoor, however. The great hall occupied the whole of the second floor, although the eastern wall was very thick and held a small chamber in the north-east corner, and was lit by three small windows , the fireplace being in the west gable. It is likely that there was a third floor above with private chambers and an attic, but this was lost when the tower was heightened in 1581 with the second stone vault – much of the stone being looted from Dryburgh Abbey. The Haigs continued at Bemersyde until the death of the unmarried 25th laird in 1854, by which time the house had largely been abandoned. His heir was his unmarried sister Barbara, followed by two more spinster sisters, Mary and Sophia. When the last died in Rome in 1878, she had named their very distant cousin Arthur Balfour Haig as her heir. Arthur had two daughters, both of whom had children, but it was he who sold the estate to the government after the War to the benefit of his cousin the Field Marshal, whose descendants own the estate today.

HES Canmore database entry

Official Bemersyde Estate website