In the early-eighteenth century, the King’s Cramond estate (also known as King’s Crommond or Cramond Regis) was combined with Barnton to form one large estate. William Ramsay, Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, bought the estate from Lady Glenorchy of c.1786 for his son George Ramsay (c.1769-1810). William Ramsay was considered one of the richest men of business in Great Britain and his son, George, also appears to have worked in banking and to have benefited from his father's wealth.

Ramsay commissioned Robert Adam to design a castle-style building named ‘Barnton Castle’ for George between c.1786 and 1792 (SM Adam volume 29/72-79). The castle was not built and in c.1792, the patron commissioned Adam to remodel the existing building, an L-shaped tower house, at King’s Crammond instead. Adam proposed to add a three-storey, five-bay range to the house to create a U-shaped building enclosing a small courtyard to the rear as shown in the elevation and plans (SM Adam volume 46/39-41). On the principal front, Adam proposed a circular three-storey, three-bay tower with a conical roof flanked by crow-stepped gables to either side.

The house, which was later renamed ‘Barnton House’, was heavily remodelled in the nineteenth century and – without any earlier documentation of the house – it is unclear how much of Adam’s proposals were executed. Later photographic evidence shows a significantly larger house with a four-storey circular tower and without crow-stepped gables. The scheme was implemented after Adam’s death and King suggests it may have been supervised by James Adam or possibly David Hamilton from Glasgow, who made alterations to the building in c.1810. The house was demolished in c.1920.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, Index p. 3, p. 85; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume 1, pp. 223-4; Volume 2, pp. 156-161; H. M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 2008, p. 54; Canmore: National Record of the Historic Environment online, ‘Barnton House’ [accessed on 24 January 2022]; R. Thorne (ed.) ‘Edinburgh, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820’ History of Parliament, online [accessed on 24 January 2022]; The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany, Volume 72, 1810, p. 80

Louisa Catt, 2022