Scottish Castles Association

Niddrie House

Niddrie stood some 3 miles south-east from the GPO in Edinburgh. It was a 'stately widespread structure, greatly altered and added to in the course of time'.

The oldest part consisted of a L-planned mansion with a turret in the re-entrant. The tower (pictured) with its vaulted roof and checkered corbelling would appear to date from the late 16th century and the vaulted block (left) from 1636. This date appears on the dormers together with the initials S I W for Sir John Wauchope and D A H for Dame Anna Hamilton. The old tower was given a copper roof and an elegant staircase inserted to serve the new wing.

In 1650 Niddrie was occupied by Cromwell's troops who took the copper roof with them when they left!

Additions and alterations were made at the Restoration and over the following centuries leaving little - apart from the tower - to hint at its origins.

In 1944 'the grand house and Wauchope estate' was purchased by Edinburgh Corporation for the sum of £8,000. Under their tender care the house was engulfed in flames in the 1940s and allowed to stand in a ruins for the next 20 years.

What Cromwell failed to do was achieved by this self same Corporation who had Niddrie demolished in 1962.The site is now occupied by modern housing.