architecture, East Lothian, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Grotto, landscape, Mausoleum, Rustic shelter, Summerhouse

The Curling House, Gosford House, Aberlady, East Lothian

Gosford House, a seat of the Earl of Wemyss and March, is a stunning mansion which looks across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh. Designed by the eminent architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) shortly before his death, building work began in the 1790s. The house sits in the prettiest of grounds, with watercourses, ponds, summerhouses and a sublime mausoleum. In the following century one of the summerhouses was given a new use by the Aberlady Curling Club, which held matches there whenever the pond was suitably frozen.