GUNSGREEN HOUSE
Built by local smuggler and merchant John Nisbet in the 1750s, Gunsgreen House – described in the eighteenth century as a “Splendid Palace” - offers something for everyone:
• Smuggling experience: see how Eyemouth was a hotbed of the smuggling trade, with John Nisbet at the centre
• Vaulted cellars: the Smuggling Experience is in the great storage cellars where John Nisbet kept his goods, both honestly traded and otherwise!
• Hiding places built into the House, especially the Tea Chute: a unique survivor of the days when tea smuggling could make fortunes
• John Adam house: an Edinburgh Town House in the Borders
• Furnished rooms – showing rooms from the main periods in the history of the house, from John Nisbet to the Rev George Home to Mrs Dougal’s Guest House
• Admire the beautiful setting overlooking the busy fishing harbour
You can stay in Gunsgreen House – we have an apartment for a dozen guests and nearby Nisbet’s Tower – cosy accommodation for two.
You can also get married in the House – we have two spaces with room for up to twenty guests and up to eighty.
We can also offer a venue for meetings/confernces during the winter period.
Gunsgreen House dominates the town and fishing harbour of Eyemouth. Why is this grand “Edinburgh” house, designed by John Adam, one of Britain’s leading architects here? What stories can it tell?
It was built in 1753 by John Nisbet, a local merchant and smuggler. Those were the times when smuggling was called Free Trade and this coast was a centre of the business. A speaker in parliament – referring to Gunsgreen House - said “that smuggling is carried on to such an alarming extent on the east coast of Scotland, that one man had been enabled, from its gains, to erect a splendid palace.”
John Nisbet’s father had been a shop keeper and Merchant in Eyemouth. By the time John was 40 he was able to commission this house. We do not think he was ever caught, but the officials at the Custom House in Dunbar were very suspicious and keen to try and catch him out!
Smuggling could be a violent trade – even here, the King’s Boat (the Revenue Cutter) was fired upon by a smuggler’s ship on more than one occasion. People were intimidated and sometimes murdered. Leading figures like Nisbet, with his respectable brothers, lived the life of a wealthy merchant, mixing with county society.
By the 1780s, changes to customs dues meant that smuggling was no longer the business it had once been. John Nisbet went bankrupt and lost his beloved House – he died in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1796, still calling himself John Nisbet “of Gunsgreen” and trying to get it back.
We next look at George Home, the Minister of Ayton Parish, who took over the House around 1790. (His brother-in-law had been responsible for making Nisbet bankrupt and buying Gunsgreen House on the cheap!) He modernised it and lived here with his family for many years. His son followed him, and we have a pair of Maltese Slippers that George’s granddaughter “buried” in the tea chute, complete with memorial letter, when they were worn out!
Many people lived in the House over the years, but it had a new period of prominence through the bulk of the twentieth century, when it became a popular guest house – many people from all over Scotland have fond memories of their stays here – among them the outstanding Scottish entertainer Stanley Baxter, who stayed here several times as a child.
These stories are told through exciting displays in the fine stone cellars, an audio visual presentation and a suite of furnished rooms in the basement and on the ground floor, highlighting the three main periods of the history of the house.
We also have recovered a very important collection of wallpaper samples, among them one of the earliest known in Scotland. These have been used to make new paper for some rooms and original samples are displayed near where they were found during the programme of restoration work. We also show how the different occupants of the house changed it through the years, following the fashions of the times – a trend with which we are still familiar!
Gunsgreen House Apartment is a splendid place to stay – it has beautiful views of the harbour and you have use of John Nisbet’s Drawing Room. It includes a splendid room with four poster bed, which has full access for disabled guests
Nisbet’s Tower, nearby, is also splendidly placed and a cosy hideaway for two.
Our two wedding venues are the panelled reception room on the ground floor and John Nisbet’s Drawing Room on the first floor. You or your guests can stay here as well, in the Apartment.
Opening Hours
Currently closed due to renovation.
Expected re-opening - Spring 2009
Contact
GUNSGREEN HOUSE
Gunsgreen House
Gunsgree Quay
Eyemouth
Berwichshire
TD14 5SD
Great Britain
Tel: +44 (18907) 52062
Fax: +44(18907) 52062
E-Mail: enquiries@gunsgreenhouse.org
