On Sunday 18 June 1815 the British and Prussian armies, commanded respectively by the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal von Blücher, won the Battle of Waterloo. There were immediate demands for monuments across Britain to celebrate this great victory, but none were so quick to respond as William Kerr, the 6th Marquis of Lothian, and his family. By the end of June funds had been raised to erect ‘a monument on the summit of Penielheugh’, a lofty hill on the Marquis’s Monteviot estate.

Actually, the family had been planning a monument to the Duke of Wellington for some months, and the tenants had been asked to provide sand and lime for the construction of ‘Wellington’s Pillar’ earlier in 1815. The architect, William Burn (1789-1870), designed the monument in the form of an obelisk (or pyramid, the words were synonymous at this period). Whilst no drawings are known to survive, a maquette can be seen in the collection at Abbotsford, the former home of Sir Walter Scott, which shows the form monument took.

The foundation stone was laid in June, and by August the Scot’s Magazine could report that the ‘Wellington pillar on the top of Penhillheuch [sic] is in a state of progress’. The masons were instructed to carve the word VICTORY on the east face, WELLINGTON on the north, and WATERLOO on the west. The south side was to carry a dedication to the Duke of Wellington and the British Army (the Prussian army was not acknowledged). These inscriptions can all be read on the maquette.

On the 14th of October the Marquis of Lothian (1763-1825), his family, friends, and tenants gathered on the ‘romantic hill’. The Marquis paid tribute to those who had lost their lives, and to those who had served, and raised a toast to the King, the Prince Regent, the British Army, the Duke of Wellington, the Navy, Lord Nelson and many more before ending with a tribute to his tenantry. Lord Douglas then proposed a toast to the Marquis, and wished health and prosperity to his family. The four inscribed stones were in place and that on the south read:

To the Duke of Wellington
And the British Army
William Kerr
Marquis of Lothian
And his Tenants
Dedicate this Monument
30 June 1815

It is clear from the newspaper reports of this event that the obelisk was not quite finished. The Marquis himself said that it was ‘virtually completed’, but the monument on its 32 feet square base had yet to reach its ‘intended height of 109 feet’. It must however have been fairly advanced, for it was said that ‘for imposing height and grandeur’ the obelisk had ‘no rival in the United Kingdom’.

The monument was well-received, and the Scots were proud that the Marquis was ‘the first in this country to raise a monument to the heroes of Waterloo’. The 1st anniversary of the battle was marked at the monument in June 1816, when the obelisk was ‘decked with the union flag’. What happened next is a little unclear, but soon after ‘either through faulty design or faulty construction’ the obelisk ‘fell with a tremendous crash’. The estate forester is said to have written to the Marquis with the solemn news that ‘Yon muckle stane has tumbled’.

After some discussion, work began on an entirely new structure in 1817. This was designed by Archibald Elliot (1761-1823) in the form of a Doric column, which was considered appropriate ‘on account of its manly form’. Sir Walter Scott dined with Lord Lothian in September 1817, and the monument was sufficiently advanced for Scott to proclaim it ‘simply grand’, and ‘the finest piece of masonry I have ever seen’. The local whinstone was quarried nearby, and probably as a result of a lesson learned, the tower was later described as ‘very substantially built’.

The Marquis pondered whether to dedicate the tower exclusively to Waterloo, but eventually decided to stick with the original wording dedicating the monument to the Duke of Wellington and the British Army. So the tower, although marked on an 1822 map as ‘Waterloo Monument’, doesn’t actually have any inscription naming the great battle.

Work was ongoing late into 1823, only a few months before the 6th Marquis died in April 1824, and although Elliot’s original design showed a viewing platform, it is not certain if this was built. The super-structure carrying a gallery which we see today was not added until 1867, when the 8th Marquis (1832-1870), grandson of the builder of the monument, commissioned John Hungerford Pollen (1820-1902) to design a wooden viewing platform under a lead roof. News of the ‘intended restoration and embellishment’ of the monument soon spread, and the Marquis was hailed as a patriot. A poem was published celebrating the monument as a memorial that would (albeit on the second attempt) withstand the elements and ensure the valiant were remembered:

But thou proud monument, shall stand
A statute in the living land!
And ever rear thy giant head
‘Mid lightnings wild, and tempests dread.

Pollen was a cleric turned artist/architect/curator who had also worked on interiors at the Marquis’s Blickling estate in Norfolk. The builders, Messrs Herbertson of Galashiels, assembled the new balcony in their yard before taking it to Penielheugh for erection, and when complete the gallery, spire, and vane added another 37 feet to the height of the tower.

The tower was restored by Lothian Estates in the early 1990s with the support of Historic Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and the Borders Regional Council. Under normal circumstances it can be climbed, but there is a temporary closure due to Covid. For details visit https://www.lothianestates.co.uk/waterloo-monument

Sharing the hilltop with the Folly Flâneuse when she visited were Mark and Kerryanne of Borders Aerial Photography. They have kindly given permission to reproduce a dramatic image taken in better conditions.

For more of their amazing photo’s of the Borders see https://www.bordersaerialphotography.co.uk

And the monument features in this short film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sROeyfEmevY

For more on visiting Monteviot house and gardens https://www.monteviot.com

For Sir Walter Scott  https://walterscott250.com and Abbotsford https://www.scottsabbotsford.com

This post expands upon, and updates, a paper by Kitty Cruft published in the Annual Report & Bulletin of the Scottish Georgian Society (now the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland) in 1982.

Please scroll down to the comments section if you would like to share any thoughts. Thank you for reading. 

The hero of this tale began life in 1787 as Thomas Monteath. By the time he died in 1868 he had taken the name Douglas as a condition of an inheritance, advanced in the military ranks, and been knighted, thus ending his life as General Sir Thomas Monteath Douglas. He had plans to ensure that he would not quickly be forgotten, and had this extraordinary mausoleum constructed.

Driving north on the A68, The Folly Flâneuse had often noted what appeared to be a small summerhouse on a hill, just out of Jedburgh, but she had never found a moment to investigate. Arriving at last, the building turned out to be neither small, nor a summerhouse, but is instead the Monteath Mausoleum, and tucked into the hillside is a monumental entrance, invisible from the road.

The mausoleum was designed by J. Dick Peddie, of eminent Edinburgh architects Peddie and Kinnear, and a design of the ‘mausoleum now being erected’ was exhibited at the exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1865. But Monteath (as he shall be known for brevity) himself is said to have been closely involved in the design and construction, making changes as the build progressed. Having spent 4 decades in India, Monteath would have been familiar with the indigenous burial architecture and this must surely have been an influence on the design, particularly the pierced dome. But Monteath would also have been aware of such a roof much closer to home, for Peddie had recently won great acclaim for his design for a new banking hall for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. The design included an amazing dome lit by star shaped openings.

Work on the mausoleum began in 1864, and the local paper reported in March 1865 that ‘a curious and conspicuous addition to our local architecture’ was in the ‘course of erection’. At that date the central chamber, 16 feet wide, had been hollowed out of solid rock by the contractor, Mr Harkness of Hawick. Two months later the paper noted that the mausoleum was to be built 20 feet higher than originally intended.

The site at Gersit Law would have appealed to the soldier Monteath, for it overlooked the spot where the Battle of Ancrum Moor was fought in the 16th century. Along the ridge from the mausoleum is another curiosity which Monteath would have known – Lilliard’s Stone. Legend has it that Lilliard was a diminutive but determined female warrior who fought at the battle between the English and Scots armies:

Fair maiden Lilliard lies beneath this stane
Little was her stature, but muckle was her fame
Upon the English loon she laid monie thumps
And when her legs were cuttit off, she fought upon her stumps.

Monteath died in October 1868 and ‘the massive and handsome mausoleum’ was ready to receive ‘the remains of the distinguished soldier for whom it was erected.’ It was his ‘express wish’ that two lions should guard the entrance and two angels stand watch over his grave.

The building, which ‘commands one of the finest and most extensive views in the south of Scotland’ was already something of a tourist attraction, being a prominent landmark both from the main road and from the railway line. The poet Thomas Davidson gave voice to the late Monteath in ‘And There Will I be Buried’, which includes the lines:

I’ve been happy above ground;
I can ne’er be happy under
Out of gentle Teviot’s sound –
Part us not then, far asunder.

Lay me here where I may see
Teviot around his meadows flowing,
And around and over me
Winds and clouds forever going.

The locals were very proud of the mausoleum and took great offence when Sir George Douglas of Kelso, a writer and poet, criticised the building in an article in The Scotsman newspaper in 1920. Writing as ‘G.D.’, Douglas called the mausoleum a ‘strange barbaric structure’ and pontificated that ‘doubtless the old gentleman’s views on aesthetics were rudimentary.’ He also suggested that it had become known as ‘Monteath’s Aisle, or ‘Monteath’s Folly’.

A reader was quick to defend the ‘finely proportioned and well-executed structure’ and chastised Douglas for giving readers ‘the impression that … the mausoleum is a rather poor affair.’ ‘J.M.’ also dismissed the alternative names as nonsense (and indeed the names do not seem to have been used by anyone but Douglas).

Soon after this exchange trees were allowed to grow around the mausoleum, and it was largely forgotten. It was revealed anew in March 1946 when the timber was felled for the war effort, but although once again a landmark it continued to deteriorate and in 2009 it was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland.

The rescue of the structure, under the auspices of The Friends of Monteath Mausoleum, started out in a rather casual manner but culminated in a magnificent restoration. In the organisation’s own words:

‘On a warm summers afternoon in 2014, a group of friends were walking along Lilliars Edge when they came across the derelict and ivy-covered building which had once been the magnificent mausoleum. With little expectation of success they set up a Friends group and campaigned for its restoration, finding to their surprise that everyone thought it was a great idea. The land owners, the local authority and many local and regional groups supported their efforts and, despite some setbacks, the funding was finally secured in 2018 and work began in October of that year. By the Spring of 2019 the building had been fully restored with new glazed stars in the roof, new oak doors and the whole building made fully watertight. Volunteers then took over to tidy the site, paint the 672 metal railings around the perimeter, and install new pathways to improve public access.’

The restored mausoleum was opened to the public on Sunday 7th July 2019. There are occasional open days when members of the Friends are on site to chat to visitors (move fast to be there on 28 & 29 September 10am-4pm). Or, for a small fee you can pick up the key locally and visit during Lothian Estates office hours. There’s more on the Friends and on access here http://friendsofthemonteathmausoleum.org.uk/index.html

The Monteath Mausoleum seems to have inspired another mausoleum, over the border in England. There will be more on that in these pages very soon.

This part of the Borders is rich in follies and curiosities. As well as the mausoleum and Lilliard’s Stone, there is also the Waterloo Monument at Peniel Heugh, also on Lothian Estates land and beautifully maintained, and the Baron’s Folly on Down Law, sadly currently on the Scottish Buildings at Risk Register.

The final word this week goes to Sir George Douglas, he who dared to criticise the Monteath Mausoleum. Although dismissive of the epithet folly as ‘vulgar’, he couldn’t help but wish there was ‘more of such high imaginative “folly” or impulse in the world and rather less of that wisdom which begins and ends with how many beans make five!’

For Peniel Heugh see https://www.lothianestates.co.uk/waterloo-monument

For Baron’s Folly see https://canmore.org.uk/site/56982/down-law-barons-folly

And for Lilliard’s Stone https://canmore.org.uk/site/57010/lilliards-stone-lilliards-edge

UPDATE 27 July 2020: the Friends of Monteath Mausoleum have launched an audio guide which you can download before a visit http://friendsofthemonteathmausoleum.org.uk/find-it/audio-guide.html