Craigiehall

Cockburn Response

The Cockburn Association welcomes the prospect of repairing and returning Craigiehall House to a sustainable use. The submitted Heritage Impact Assessment offers a detailed account of the estate’s evolution and identifies tangible heritage benefits. In particular, reinstatement of the Burn wing’s roof and pediment, repair of the walled garden and historic gateway, restoration of the doocot, retention of much of the ammunition store and removal of intrusive garages and vehicle surfaces merit support in principle. A hotel use has a precedent in the estate’s history.

These benefits do not, however, settle the effects of the principal new interventions. The proposal places a 500-person event venue within the Category A-listed walled garden. The HIA itself calls this a major change with a Moderate / Large impact, and cites a lower roof and service wing as mitigation. The garden’s previous occupation by military structures and parking has compromised its interior but has not erased its listed enclosure or its relationship with Craigiehall House. The Council should be given a transparent assessment of the residual adverse and beneficial effects, dimensioned sections and verified views from the house, approaches and within the garden, together with reasonable smaller, differently sited and no-venue options. The Landscape Statement explains the orchard, productive garden, historic paths and reopened entrance, but also places event parking and substantial gathering space within the enclosure. Assess those elements and the venue together, including the extent of public access and ordinary use outside events, rather than treating reinstatement as cancelling its impact by assertion.

The HIA also records significant intervention at the listed William Burn wing. Restoring the pitched roof and pediment is a substantial benefit, but the proposed extension and dining terrace would conceal part of its lower elevation and alter external window openings. We seek detailed fabric plans, junctions and an assessment of less harmful ways of providing the proposed bedrooms, accessibility and escape provision. The adverse effects of these works should be set out plainly and weighed against the restoration benefits.

We welcome the proposed repair of the doocot and historic gateway and the retention of identifiable features in the ammunition store. The repair approach should distinguish surviving material from reconstruction and explain the loss of two ammunition bays and the effect of the new entrance. The historic landscape proposals, including removal of the turning circle, orchard and productive planting, renewed formal garden and more sympathetic surfaces, have clear potential. The Landscape Statement includes an access diagram and refers to a maintenance schedule. The Council should test its delivery and long-term stewardship alongside parking, deliveries, lighting, signage, event activity and public access. The proposed removal of cypress group G9 and tree T1 should be evaluated against the stated view and access benefits and the arboricultural evidence.

Craigiehall House, the walled garden, ancillary structures and Inventory designed landscape must be considered as a connected whole. We support the principle of adaptive reuse, but ask that the application and associated listed building consent be determined only when the residual heritage effects, realistic alternatives and cumulative estate implications are sufficiently clear. The HIA and Landscape Statement provide valuable detail; their positive account of restoration does not remove those outstanding questions.

Photograph: Thomas Nugent, Craigiehall from the air, via Geograph/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.