Walled Garden Glasshouses, Marchmont Estate (Hugo Burge Foundation)

Marchmont's walled garden was created in the 18th century to supply the house and estate: the Foundation points to the end of the century, Historic Environment Scotland's (HES) garden inventory to an establishment from the middle of it. In 1913 Robert Finnie McEwen, a musician and composer, bought the estate and promptly commissioned Sir Robert Lorimer to remodel the house and design the glasshouses, according to the inventory. Built by the Edinburgh firm Mackenzie & Moncur, whom the BBC notes counted Queen Victoria among their clients, they date from 1915 according to the HES inventory and to The Buildings of Scotland, as cited by Wikipedia. Lorimer's plans divided the compartments between carnations, peaches, nectarines, vines, ferns and melons.

The garden's listing record describes a range of the late 19th century, while the Foundation speaks of work after 1913 and the BBC of the early 20th century.

Decline set in during the 1970s and 1980s. The house was sold in 1980 to the Sue Ryder Foundation, which ran a home for disabled people there until 2007; in the late 20th century the glasshouses were used to grow tomatoes, then fell into ruin. In 2017 Hugo Burge, who had bought the house with his father about ten years earlier, decided to reimagine the garden and spent four years refurbishing the glasshouses; a magazine places the work between 2018 and 2022. Hugo Burge died in 2023 and left the garden to the foundation that bears his name. On 19 June 2025 the BBC announced the first public opening since 1981.

The glasshouses form a symmetrical range set against the north-east wall of the walled garden, which the Foundation places on the 'eastern flank'. The enclosure is a rectangle of about 8,400 m² with tall coped walls, lined with red brick on two sides. The HES listing record (LB46326, category B, added on 16 August 1999) describes a symmetrical five-bay range and notes, inside, the original work benches, decorative floor grilles and the levers for the ridge vents. Single-storey potting sheds of sandstone and brick complete the group.

Photographs from 2025 on Wikimedia Commons show white-painted glasshouses with glazed roofs, a long aisle and benches loaded with pots.

Before the restoration the glasshouses had lost most of their glass (Homes & Interiors Scotland, 2025), and the HES inventory, amended in 2011, judged them to be in very poor condition. The glasshouse entrance is listed as accessible (Doors Open Days 2026), whereas the garden paths are grass.

According to Lorimer's plan, the compartments were assigned to carnations, peaches, nectarines, vines, ferns and melons. A magazine reports that before the work only a remnant of a fig tree remained and everything had to be replanted. Photographs from 2025 show potted plants on the benches and sculptures displayed under the glass, and the Foundation serves tea, coffee and baked goods there during visits.

The walled garden around the glasshouses includes: herbaceous borders, including the Venus border in blues and purples, a kitchen garden whose produce supplies a community larder in Duns, a colonnade, wildflower meadows, cut-flower beds, a recently reopened Japanese-inspired garden, and a sculpture collection running from the 18th century to the present day.

The garden is not open every day. The Foundation opens it once a week in summer through Scotland's Gardens Scheme (in 2026, on Fridays from mid-June to late August, by booking), runs guided tours with a member of the garden team (23 July and 20 August 2026, with tea and coffee served in the glasshouses) and includes the garden and glasshouses in its Open Studios and Doors Open Days weekends. The 2026 season has therefore ended: the next calendar should be checked with the Foundation. These days also open the craft workshops (rush-seated chairs, silversmithing); Marchmont's Palladian house, a separate organisation, runs its own tours during the Open Studios. Dogs are not admitted to the walled garden or the glasshouses.