Adam’s designs for a boathouse with one mooring is unusual, as asymmetrical designs by Adam are rare. Moreover, of all Adam's designs for a castellated boathouse for Burghley, this variant is the only one which uses a rounded rather than a pointed arch. None of Adam’s designs for the boathouse at Burghley were executed, and it was built later, on the opposite side of the lake from the house, by an unknown architect, in a neo-Jacobean style.