![](\"https:\/\/swanston.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/slider_graphic_swanston.png\" "\\"slider_graphic_swanston\\"")
<\/span><\/div><\/div>Swanston Village – a step back in time.<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\nThe first record of Swanston Village appears in AD 1214 as part of the Barony of Redhall. An agreement was struck between a farmer, called Sveinn and the local Anglican landowners, to work the land. The name of Sveinn\u2019s Farm was then changed over the centuries, to finally end up as the modern documented Swanston. Historical records show that the medieval estate of Swanston stretched from Oxgangs Road to the Pentland Hills and from Bowbridge to the Long Plantation at Dreghorn.<\/span><\/p>\nThe village of Swanston, about 600 metres above sea level, began in the early eighteenth century around the farm and originally consisted of ten thatched cottages. The thatched cottages remain, however when renovated in about 1960 the outer walls were retained and the ten cottages were made in to seven. Most of them have Tay reed thatch and concrete ridges dating from J. Wilson\u2019s Paterson\u2019s restoration of 1964. However, in recent years, various individual properties have been partly or fully re-thatched.<\/p>\n
At the turn of the twentieth century the stone cottages of New Swanston with their slate roofs were built on three sides around a grassy area just across the burn from the old village.<\/p>\n
Swanston Village is an integral part of a rare example of an 18th century group of inhabited thatched cottages. Once common across Scotland, these vernacular thatched buildings are now extremely rare. The cottages retain their 18th century footprint and a significant proportion of their historic character and fabric following their refurbishment and restoration in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n
There are no later additions or later buildings in the immediate group and their setting is largely unchanged from the 19th century. They also have added interest as an example of a mid-20th century local authority social housing that restored historic buildings for modern use using traditional materials.<\/p>\n
Swanston village first appears on Adair’s map of the 1680s with the spelling “Swanstoun”.\u00a0<\/em>On Thomson’s Map of 1821 the village is marked as a tower house surrounded by a group of smaller buildings all set around the Swanston Burn which runs off the Pentland Hills. The tower house on this map is the early 18th century Swanston Mansion House (listed at category B, LB28202) and the map marks the owner as “Trotter Esq”. The Trotter family bought the Mortonhall Estate in 1670.<\/p>\nAuthor Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent his holidays at Swanston Farm, living in ‘Swanston Cottage’ just the other side of the farm buildings from Swanston Village, is said to have used Swanston Village as his inspiration when writing his book, ‘St Ives’ and regularly wrote about it in his observations and notes about Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
Various 19th and early 20th century photographs of Swanston Village on SCRAN show the thatched houses with various ad hoc additions, some of which may have been built using reclaimed materials. It was common for vernacular buildings to have simply crafted additions and alterations, often due to the occupants’ limited resources.<\/p>\n
In his book ‘Edinburgh, An Illustrated Architectural Guide’<\/em>\u00a0McKean notes Swanston Village was a home for shepherds working in the local area and was also known for the cottage industry of linen bleaching.\u00a0Historic South Edinburgh<\/em>\u00a0notes that in the mid-19th century the cottages were occupied by the farmworkers of Swanston Farm. The cottages had earth floors and each one consisted of one main room, a privy and an adjoining midden.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/swanston.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Edinburgh-An-Illustrated-Architectural-Guide-by-Charles-Mckean.jpg\")
<\/a>Edinburgh An Illustrated Architectural Guide by Charles McKean. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n
The village had no water or electricity when the 40 residents were cut off by snowdrifts of 1947 and by 1954 the cottages were mostly uninhabited. In 1956 the Edinburgh Corporation planned repairs to convert the nine cottages into seven for use as social housing. The works included upgrading the interior of the cottages to the required standard of the time. The 1960 article ‘A New Look for Swanston<\/em>‘ records a meeting on 20 June 1956 where the City Architect estimated the cost of renovations at \u00a317,000. The scheme included a tea room and house, a road and the layout of the grounds.<\/p>\nA photograph in an April 1960 article in Scotland’s Magazine shows cottages 13 and 14 with their thatch and roof structures removed ready to be reroofed. The various individual additions to the cottages were removed and the exteriors of the cottages were regularised.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/swanston.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Swanston-Village-thatching-being-replaced.jpg\")
<\/a>Swanston Village thatching being replaced. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n
There are variety of dates for the restoration. The ‘Buildings of Scotland<\/em>‘ notes that the restoration of the cottages was undertaken in 1964 by J. Wilson Paterson. The\u00a0Dictionary of Scottish Architects<\/em>\u00a0also credits Paterson although it records a more detailed date for the project of around 1959-62. However photographs in\u00a0Scotland’s Magazine\u00a0<\/em>of April 1960 and\u00a0The Queen’s Highway\u00a0<\/em>of January 1960 both show the completed renovation of the houses to the west side of the burn. ‘Interesting Scottish Villages’<\/em>\u00a0by Gilbert T Bell in 1965 records that the works were completed for under \u00a330,000.<\/p>\nThe Swanston cottages form an unusual example of post-war social housing provision using existing buildings, traditional materials and conservation principles. The majority of contemporary social housing projects by city authorities were modernist new build schemes often incorporating large scale new town planning. Other examples of contemporary projects in Edinburgh include those at Dumbiedykes or the larger scale developments at Sighthill and Niddrie.<\/p>\n
Most of the small scale regeneration schemes for small historic houses were for sale and reuse by trusts or private individuals.<\/p>\n
In 1955-56 the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) set a pioneering approach to the conservation of historic houses in their restoration projects for small townhouses in Dunkeld, Perthshire and Culross, Fife. The NTS employed the conservation architect Ian G Lindsay who had been appointed chief investigator of historic buildings under the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1945. By 1960 they had restored 50 houses and officially launched the ‘The Little Houses Improvement Scheme’ in a bid to ensure a future for historic houses across Scotland. The ethos was a balance between retaining the exterior period features of the buildings, whilst also making internal adjustments for modern living. A photograph from around 1960 (SCRAN) shows number 11 just after it was renovated by the Edinburgh Corporation.<\/p>\n
Another similar example is the restoration of the 18th century town of Inveraray in Argyll and Bute. The Duke of Argyll had gifted the Ministry of Public Building and Works a large part of the town for community housing and Ian G Lindsay was also commissioned for the contract in 1958.<\/p>\n
The restoration of the cottages in Swanston is likely to have been in part inspired by this new movement of regeneration of small vernacular houses. The small scale historic restoration scheme by a local authority for social housing is rare and probably the only use of thatch in this context.<\/p>\n
The use of thatch as a roofing material has a long tradition in Scotland. Thatched buildings are often traditionally built single storey cottages or crofts reflecting pre-industrial construction methods and materials. The survival of this building type into the 21st century is extremely rare.\u00a0A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland<\/em>, published in 2016 by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), found that were only around 200 buildings with thatched roofs in Scotland. Those which retain their traditional vernacular character, including plan forms and construction techniques may be of special interest in listing terms.<\/p>\nAt the end of the 19th century thatched buildings remained common in the north and west of Scotland however in central, southern and eastern Scotland the use of thatch was becoming increasingly rare. The survival of settlements with thatched roofs is rare by the 20th century.<\/p>\n
There are other groups of thatched buildings across Scotland such as in Fortingall and Rait in Perthshire and Collessie in Fife. Fortingall is a late 19th century planned village in the Arts and Crafts style and Collessie has five 18th century thatched buildings spread throughout the village. More groups of thatched cottages survive on the Uists but they are more spread across the landscape and are interspersed with later buildings. Swanston Village by comparison is unique as a close knit grouping of 18th century thatched cottages in the Scottish lowlands and it is also the only surviving example in Scotland near to a major city.<\/p>\n
After the Second World War the decline of the tradition of thatched buildings accelerated across Scotland. Improved communications, cheaper more efficient building materials, higher general standards of living as well as the loss of skilled workers came very close to ending the thatching tradition. As owners of thatched buildings moved to modern houses thatched buildings were often abandoned or converted to stores or animal shelters.<\/p>\n
The 1950s decision to restore the Swanston cottages for housing and retain their thatched roofs means that they are a very rare survival of thatch in the area. The 19th century and later subsidiary additions and modifications were removed as a result of these works. The group as a whole retains a significant amount of 18th century character.<\/p>\n
The Swanston Cottages are constructed and repaired using materials and methods that are characteristic of central Scotland.\u00a0 The cottages retain a significant proportion of their 18th century character and fabric, such as the small window openings, the thickness and irregularity of the walls and use of rubble stone for the walls, which is likely to have been locally sourced. The cottages are built on the steepest part of Swanston and parallel to the burn. The form of vernacular buildings typically responded to the landscape. The sloping elevation and roofline of number 11 reflects the topography of the site.<\/p>\n
Photographs from the mid-20th century show that the buildings were in a relatively poor state of repair with various incremental alterations and that roof structures were removed and replaced as part of the refurbishment around 1960. The roofs have been re-thatched in Tay reed and the concrete ridges added. The Brough family from Fife worked mostly in the central region and they are most well-known for the re-thatching at Swanston.<\/p>\n
A photograph on SCRAN (ref: 000-000-467-748-C) shows Jock Brough re-thatching at the village using a steel ‘needle’, a wooden ‘beater’, and a straight knife. The thatch was woven into the battens or purlins then the edges of the overlapping reed were beaten to create a flat finish for the smooth run off of rain. The thatching style, including the concrete ridge, was ‘imported’ from the central areas of Scotland (Walker et al, p.62).<\/p>\n
The architect J Wilson Paterson was educated in Edinburgh and began working for the Office of Works in Edinburgh in 1909 under the principal William T Oldrieve. He was commended for his work on Holyrood Palace in 1910 -1913 and as a result he continued to work for the smaller Edinburgh Office of Works after Oldrieve’s retirement. The office carried out works on post office and telephone exchanges across the city. J Wilson Paterson retired from the Office of Works in 1943. However, he continued to work privately and by 1960 he was senior partner in the Edinburgh office of Miller and Black. The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records that Paterson carried out the restoration works to Swanston Village for the Edinburgh Corporation from 1959-62 at which time he would have been around 83 years old.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Civic Trust Awards were established in 1959 by Michael Middleton CBE to recognise outstanding architecture, urban design, landscape and public art which improved the quality of life for local communities. The restoration work to Swanston Village was an early scheme to receive one of these awards when it won a Civic Trust Commendation in 1964.<\/p>\n
Swanston village is the only example of thatched buildings in Scotland which are located within a city council area.\u00a0 The setting of the thatched cottages within striking distance of the capital city makes them very rare. Unusually their immediate setting is largely unaffected by later development or by the expansion of the city. The setting of these cottages adds significantly to their interest.<\/p>\n
The design and construction of a building, the method of thatching and the thatching material used was a distinctly localised practice. The best examples of local vernacular buildings will normally be listed because together they illustrate the importance of distinctive local and regional traditions.<\/p>\n
The central and southern regions of Scotland have a history of diverse local thatching techniques. The industrial and agricultural revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries transformed areas of this region in a very short period of time and as a result relatively few thatch buildings survive. Almost none are known to survive in large towns or cities and so the location of those at Swanston is very rare.<\/p>\n
The thatch was often secured down using pegs or wire netting. Thatched buildings in the area usually had gable ends, as seen at Swanston. The traditional thatching material in this area would have been oat straw, as was often the case across Scotland. The planting of the Tay reed beds in the 18th century and the increased availability of reed as a result means that most buildings in this region are thatched in reed, as at Swanston.<\/p>\n
The concrete ridges used at Swanston was a detail more commonly used in the central regions of Scotland, and was added as part of Brough’s work. At later cottages the use of masonry skews became popular.<\/p>\n
One of the thatched cottages was home to the ‘Roarin’ Shepherd’ John Todd, who, stories say, could call his sheep down to the thatched cottages where he lived, from the top of Caerketton Hill, such was the power of his voice.\u00a0 Robert Louis Stevenson described John Todd with great fondness in his essay ‘Pastoral’<\/em>\u00a0(chapter 6 in his 1887 book “Memories and Portraits<\/em>“).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/swanston.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Cottage-of-John-Todd-postcard-drawing-by-Reginald-Phillimore.jpg\")
<\/a>Cottage of John Todd The ‘Roaring Shepherd’ – postcard drawing by Reginald Phillimore<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>
The village of Swanston, about 600 metres above sea level, began in the early eighteenth century around the farm and originally consisted of ten thatched cottages. The thatched cottages remain, however when renovated in about 1960 the outer walls were retained and the ten cottages were made in to seven. Most of them have Tay reed thatch and concrete ridges dating from J. Wilson\u2019s Paterson\u2019s restoration of 1964. However, in recent years, various individual properties have been partly or fully re-thatched.<\/p>\n
At the turn of the twentieth century the stone cottages of New Swanston with their slate roofs were built on three sides around a grassy area just across the burn from the old village.<\/p>\n
Swanston Village is an integral part of a rare example of an 18th century group of inhabited thatched cottages. Once common across Scotland, these vernacular thatched buildings are now extremely rare. The cottages retain their 18th century footprint and a significant proportion of their historic character and fabric following their refurbishment and restoration in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n
There are no later additions or later buildings in the immediate group and their setting is largely unchanged from the 19th century. They also have added interest as an example of a mid-20th century local authority social housing that restored historic buildings for modern use using traditional materials.<\/p>\n
Swanston village first appears on Adair’s map of the 1680s with the spelling “Swanstoun”.\u00a0<\/em>On Thomson’s Map of 1821 the village is marked as a tower house surrounded by a group of smaller buildings all set around the Swanston Burn which runs off the Pentland Hills. The tower house on this map is the early 18th century Swanston Mansion House (listed at category B, LB28202) and the map marks the owner as “Trotter Esq”. The Trotter family bought the Mortonhall Estate in 1670.<\/p>\n Author Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent his holidays at Swanston Farm, living in ‘Swanston Cottage’ just the other side of the farm buildings from Swanston Village, is said to have used Swanston Village as his inspiration when writing his book, ‘St Ives’ and regularly wrote about it in his observations and notes about Edinburgh.<\/p>\n Various 19th and early 20th century photographs of Swanston Village on SCRAN show the thatched houses with various ad hoc additions, some of which may have been built using reclaimed materials. It was common for vernacular buildings to have simply crafted additions and alterations, often due to the occupants’ limited resources.<\/p>\n In his book ‘Edinburgh, An Illustrated Architectural Guide’<\/em>\u00a0McKean notes Swanston Village was a home for shepherds working in the local area and was also known for the cottage industry of linen bleaching.\u00a0Historic South Edinburgh<\/em>\u00a0notes that in the mid-19th century the cottages were occupied by the farmworkers of Swanston Farm. The cottages had earth floors and each one consisted of one main room, a privy and an adjoining midden.<\/p>\n Edinburgh An Illustrated Architectural Guide by Charles McKean. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n The village had no water or electricity when the 40 residents were cut off by snowdrifts of 1947 and by 1954 the cottages were mostly uninhabited. In 1956 the Edinburgh Corporation planned repairs to convert the nine cottages into seven for use as social housing. The works included upgrading the interior of the cottages to the required standard of the time. The 1960 article ‘A New Look for Swanston<\/em>‘ records a meeting on 20 June 1956 where the City Architect estimated the cost of renovations at \u00a317,000. The scheme included a tea room and house, a road and the layout of the grounds.<\/p>\n A photograph in an April 1960 article in Scotland’s Magazine shows cottages 13 and 14 with their thatch and roof structures removed ready to be reroofed. The various individual additions to the cottages were removed and the exteriors of the cottages were regularised.<\/p>\n Swanston Village thatching being replaced. Click to enlarge.<\/p><\/div>\n There are variety of dates for the restoration. The ‘Buildings of Scotland<\/em>‘ notes that the restoration of the cottages was undertaken in 1964 by J. Wilson Paterson. The\u00a0Dictionary of Scottish Architects<\/em>\u00a0also credits Paterson although it records a more detailed date for the project of around 1959-62. However photographs in\u00a0Scotland’s Magazine\u00a0<\/em>of April 1960 and\u00a0The Queen’s Highway\u00a0<\/em>of January 1960 both show the completed renovation of the houses to the west side of the burn. ‘Interesting Scottish Villages’<\/em>\u00a0by Gilbert T Bell in 1965 records that the works were completed for under \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n The Swanston cottages form an unusual example of post-war social housing provision using existing buildings, traditional materials and conservation principles. The majority of contemporary social housing projects by city authorities were modernist new build schemes often incorporating large scale new town planning. Other examples of contemporary projects in Edinburgh include those at Dumbiedykes or the larger scale developments at Sighthill and Niddrie.<\/p>\n Most of the small scale regeneration schemes for small historic houses were for sale and reuse by trusts or private individuals.<\/p>\n In 1955-56 the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) set a pioneering approach to the conservation of historic houses in their restoration projects for small townhouses in Dunkeld, Perthshire and Culross, Fife. The NTS employed the conservation architect Ian G Lindsay who had been appointed chief investigator of historic buildings under the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1945. By 1960 they had restored 50 houses and officially launched the ‘The Little Houses Improvement Scheme’ in a bid to ensure a future for historic houses across Scotland. The ethos was a balance between retaining the exterior period features of the buildings, whilst also making internal adjustments for modern living. A photograph from around 1960 (SCRAN) shows number 11 just after it was renovated by the Edinburgh Corporation.<\/p>\n Another similar example is the restoration of the 18th century town of Inveraray in Argyll and Bute. The Duke of Argyll had gifted the Ministry of Public Building and Works a large part of the town for community housing and Ian G Lindsay was also commissioned for the contract in 1958.<\/p>\n The restoration of the cottages in Swanston is likely to have been in part inspired by this new movement of regeneration of small vernacular houses. The small scale historic restoration scheme by a local authority for social housing is rare and probably the only use of thatch in this context.<\/p>\n The use of thatch as a roofing material has a long tradition in Scotland. Thatched buildings are often traditionally built single storey cottages or crofts reflecting pre-industrial construction methods and materials. The survival of this building type into the 21st century is extremely rare.\u00a0A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland<\/em>, published in 2016 by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), found that were only around 200 buildings with thatched roofs in Scotland. Those which retain their traditional vernacular character, including plan forms and construction techniques may be of special interest in listing terms.<\/p>\n At the end of the 19th century thatched buildings remained common in the north and west of Scotland however in central, southern and eastern Scotland the use of thatch was becoming increasingly rare. The survival of settlements with thatched roofs is rare by the 20th century.<\/p>\n There are other groups of thatched buildings across Scotland such as in Fortingall and Rait in Perthshire and Collessie in Fife. Fortingall is a late 19th century planned village in the Arts and Crafts style and Collessie has five 18th century thatched buildings spread throughout the village. More groups of thatched cottages survive on the Uists but they are more spread across the landscape and are interspersed with later buildings. Swanston Village by comparison is unique as a close knit grouping of 18th century thatched cottages in the Scottish lowlands and it is also the only surviving example in Scotland near to a major city.<\/p>\n After the Second World War the decline of the tradition of thatched buildings accelerated across Scotland. Improved communications, cheaper more efficient building materials, higher general standards of living as well as the loss of skilled workers came very close to ending the thatching tradition. As owners of thatched buildings moved to modern houses thatched buildings were often abandoned or converted to stores or animal shelters.<\/p>\n The 1950s decision to restore the Swanston cottages for housing and retain their thatched roofs means that they are a very rare survival of thatch in the area. The 19th century and later subsidiary additions and modifications were removed as a result of these works. The group as a whole retains a significant amount of 18th century character.<\/p>\n The Swanston Cottages are constructed and repaired using materials and methods that are characteristic of central Scotland.\u00a0 The cottages retain a significant proportion of their 18th century character and fabric, such as the small window openings, the thickness and irregularity of the walls and use of rubble stone for the walls, which is likely to have been locally sourced. The cottages are built on the steepest part of Swanston and parallel to the burn. The form of vernacular buildings typically responded to the landscape. The sloping elevation and roofline of number 11 reflects the topography of the site.<\/p>\n Photographs from the mid-20th century show that the buildings were in a relatively poor state of repair with various incremental alterations and that roof structures were removed and replaced as part of the refurbishment around 1960. The roofs have been re-thatched in Tay reed and the concrete ridges added. The Brough family from Fife worked mostly in the central region and they are most well-known for the re-thatching at Swanston.<\/p>\n A photograph on SCRAN (ref: 000-000-467-748-C) shows Jock Brough re-thatching at the village using a steel ‘needle’, a wooden ‘beater’, and a straight knife. The thatch was woven into the battens or purlins then the edges of the overlapping reed were beaten to create a flat finish for the smooth run off of rain. The thatching style, including the concrete ridge, was ‘imported’ from the central areas of Scotland (Walker et al, p.62).<\/p>\n The architect J Wilson Paterson was educated in Edinburgh and began working for the Office of Works in Edinburgh in 1909 under the principal William T Oldrieve. He was commended for his work on Holyrood Palace in 1910 -1913 and as a result he continued to work for the smaller Edinburgh Office of Works after Oldrieve’s retirement. The office carried out works on post office and telephone exchanges across the city. J Wilson Paterson retired from the Office of Works in 1943. However, he continued to work privately and by 1960 he was senior partner in the Edinburgh office of Miller and Black. The Dictionary of Scottish Architects records that Paterson carried out the restoration works to Swanston Village for the Edinburgh Corporation from 1959-62 at which time he would have been around 83 years old.<\/p>\n The Scottish Civic Trust Awards were established in 1959 by Michael Middleton CBE to recognise outstanding architecture, urban design, landscape and public art which improved the quality of life for local communities. The restoration work to Swanston Village was an early scheme to receive one of these awards when it won a Civic Trust Commendation in 1964.<\/p>\n Swanston village is the only example of thatched buildings in Scotland which are located within a city council area.\u00a0 The setting of the thatched cottages within striking distance of the capital city makes them very rare. Unusually their immediate setting is largely unaffected by later development or by the expansion of the city. The setting of these cottages adds significantly to their interest.<\/p>\n The design and construction of a building, the method of thatching and the thatching material used was a distinctly localised practice. The best examples of local vernacular buildings will normally be listed because together they illustrate the importance of distinctive local and regional traditions.<\/p>\n The central and southern regions of Scotland have a history of diverse local thatching techniques. The industrial and agricultural revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries transformed areas of this region in a very short period of time and as a result relatively few thatch buildings survive. Almost none are known to survive in large towns or cities and so the location of those at Swanston is very rare.<\/p>\n The thatch was often secured down using pegs or wire netting. Thatched buildings in the area usually had gable ends, as seen at Swanston. The traditional thatching material in this area would have been oat straw, as was often the case across Scotland. The planting of the Tay reed beds in the 18th century and the increased availability of reed as a result means that most buildings in this region are thatched in reed, as at Swanston.<\/p>\n The concrete ridges used at Swanston was a detail more commonly used in the central regions of Scotland, and was added as part of Brough’s work. At later cottages the use of masonry skews became popular.<\/p>\n One of the thatched cottages was home to the ‘Roarin’ Shepherd’ John Todd, who, stories say, could call his sheep down to the thatched cottages where he lived, from the top of Caerketton Hill, such was the power of his voice.\u00a0 Robert Louis Stevenson described John Todd with great fondness in his essay ‘Pastoral’<\/em>\u00a0(chapter 6 in his 1887 book “Memories and Portraits<\/em>“).<\/p>\n Cottage of John Todd The ‘Roaring Shepherd’ – postcard drawing by Reginald Phillimore<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/a><\/a><\/a>