CONTEXT 182 : DECEMBER 2024 25 HEATING & VENTILATION ESMÉ COPPOCK Researching and restoring Abbotsford’s hothouse Investigation, conservation and imaginative interpretation are bringing the writer Walter Scott and his garden more vividly to life, while preserving this important garden building. A new visitor experience has been created in a recently restored gothic glasshouse in the walled garden at Abbotsford, the former home of Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Abbotsford is Category A-listed and included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. As part of the conservation project, documentary research and archaeological investigations were carried out to better understand this unusual example of a glasshouse, known as the Pavilion. The building contained hothouse technologies typical of the time and the design was influenced by Scott himself. Scott’s passionate love of the Scottish borders prompted his purchase of Cartley Hole Farm outside Selkirk in 1811. At this point in his career Scott was clerk of session by day and was already known for his narrative poetry such as The Lay of the Last Minstrel. He had yet to publish the historical novels which, once his initially concealed identity was revealed, elevated him to worldwide fame. Scott created Abbotsford House, a renowned and early example of Scots baronial architecture, between 1816 and 1819. It features crowstepped gables, castellated turrets and bartizans complete with arrow loops. Its pronounced Scottish historical character also incorporated original fragments of historic buildings collected by Scott, including a door from Edinburgh’s Tolbooth (demolished in 1817). When Scott was spectacularly bankrupted in 1826, all but essential building work on the estate came to a halt. The house was opened to the public just five months after his death (he died in 1832) and still contains his collections. Extending north-east of the house is the walled garden. In their most basic form, walled gardens were designed to protect edible and decorative plants from frost, high winds and animal and human thieves. They could be built with one or more furnaces to warm the walls and provide additional heat for plants and trees trained against them. This allowed plants from warmer climates to grow in the Scottish weather, furnishing the Abbotsford kitchen with soft fruits. The excess heat from the walls also benefited the remainder of the walled garden, creating a warmer, sheltered microclimate for other plants. The garden Abbotsford Pavilion: the timber structure sits behind a stone screen. (Photo: The Abbotsford Trust)
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