Dalkeith Palace was built upon ruins of a medieval castle in 1702-11 to designs by James Smith for the 2nd Earl of Buccleuch. The estate was inherited by the prominent landowner and army officer, Henry Scott (1746-1812) at the age of five in 1751 when he succeeded his grandfather as Duke of Buccleuch, and as Earl of Doncaster in the English peerage. He succeeded to the title of 5th Duke of Queensberry after the death of his cousin in 1810 and inherited extensive estates in Dumfriesshire. He was raised by his stepfather, the English politician Charles Townshend who, upon Scott’s Grand Tour, appointed the moral philosopher (and later political economist) Adam Smith to tutor Scott, forming a life-long friendship. Upon Scott’s return to Britain in 1767, he married Lady Elizabeth Montagu (1743-1827) and formally inherited his titles and estates upon his twenty-first birthday and moved into his ancestral home, Dalkeith House.

Scott was deeply engaged in Scottish economic and political culture, funding the foundation of the Ayr Bank in 1769 (which later crashed), and forming a close friendship with the lawyer and politician Henry Dundas. Scott was also Governor of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1777 to 1812, Lord Lieutenant of Midlothian and of Haddington from 1794 to 1812, Knight of the Thistle from December 1767, Knight of the Garter 1794, Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers from 1778 and Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire in 1803. He was also founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and its first President, serving from 1783 until his death in 1812.

John Adam was employed to make repairs to the house in 1751-2 and 1762-3 whilst Scott was still a minor. After Scott came of age, he commissioned William Chambers to design a bridge over the River North Esk to the west of Dalkeith House which was not executed and later built to new designs by Robert Adam. He also employed James Playfair to make designs to add a bow window to the library of the house and for a porter’s lodge and gates at the south entrance to the estate; only the window for the library was executed.

In c.1791, Scott commissioned Robert Adam to make new designs for a bridge over the River North Esk to the west of Dalkeith House. The Soane Collection has an undated plan, elevation, section and perspective of the bridge (SM Adam volume 34/110-112 & 2/181), as well as an unexecuted working drawing for the decoration of a panel dating from 1792 (SM Adam volume 34/113). The bridge was executed to Adam’s designs and completed by 1794 when it was described in the Old Statistical Account of Scotland as ‘an elegant bridge of beautiful white stone over the River Esk, which is a great addition to the surrounding scenery’.

There are also two drawings containing a design for a sundial (SM Adam volume 49/36-37) which bares similarities with the sundial at Croome Court. The sundial at Dalkeith was never executed and the drawings are undated but King suggests that they likely date from the same time as the bridge, c.1791.

Later, in 1794, James Adam made designs for a porter’s lodge and gates to the entrance of Dalkeith House on the High Street. There are two variant designs, one in the Soane collection (SM Adam volume 51/62), and one in the Buccleuch Archives which has been reproduced in King, Volume 2. The latter was executed with some minor modifications and has since been extended and reroofed.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 9, 64; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 334-335; Volume 2, 2001, pp. 214, 217; J. Dunbar & J. Conforth ‘Dalkeith House, Lothian – III’ in Country Life, Vol. 275, May 3 1984, pp. 1230-33; H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 2008, p. 813; J. Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. XII, 1794, p. 26; C. McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland: Lothian, 1978, pp. 158-161; B. Riley, The Bridges of Robert Adam: Afanciful and Picturesque Tour, 2023, pp. 118-121; A. Murdoch, ‘Scott, Henry, third duke of Buccleuch and fifth duke of Queensberry (1746-1812)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography¸ 2009, online [accessed 17 June 2022]; Historic Environment Scotland, ‘High Street, Duke's Gate, Town Lodge and Estate Walls (LB24376)’, online, [accessed 1 June 2022]; Historic Environment Scotland, ‘Dalkeith Park, Montagu Bridge including Cauld (LB1440)’, online, [accessed 1 June 2022]; Scottish National Galleries, ‘Robert Adam: Design for a Doric Bridge’, Accession number: D 441, online [accessed 1 June 2022]

Louisa Catt, 2022