page_title: Eildon Hall (Scottish Borders)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Eildon Hall (Scottish Borders) / History
caption_attribution_description: Eildon Hills, Melrose, Scotland
context_page_description: Eildon Hall, near St Boswells, Roxburghshire, is one of the houses belonging to the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensbury. It is located at the foot of Eildon Hill, just south of the town of Melrose in the Scottish Borders. Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester is very descriptive of Eildon Hall, her childhood home, in her memoirs. She describes it as a "Georgian house with Victorian additions, made from the local coral pink sandstone," and "standing 600 feet above sea level." She also describes the view from the house as a "wonderful view of the valley below stretching away to the Cheviots thirty miles distant."
  Eildon Hall is used as a principal residence by whomsoever happens to be the Earl of Dalkeith, heir to the Dukedom of Buccleuch. "Perhaps because Eildon was the first grown-up home of aspiring Dukes of Buccleuch," wrote Princess Alice, "and has therefore always been a young family's house, it has a charmingly domestic air." It is less known than the other properties of the Montagu Douglas Scott family--Drumlanrig Castle, Bowhill House, and Boughton House, all three of which where the bulk of the Duke of Buccleuch collections are housed.
context_section_description: The house was built in 1802 for the Royal Navy surgeon Thomas Mein. Extensions were designed by the famous Scottish architect William Burn for the fifth Duke of Buccleuch, who bought the house in 1838 and wanted to use it as a base during the fox hunt season. The fifth Duke founded the Buccleuch Hunt in 1827; it chases the fox from the foothills of the Cheviot to the Lammermuir Hills. Princess Alice's memoirs, which she published in 1983, further the impression of Eildon Hall was a base for the fox hunting season. She mentions that her uncle Lord George Scott came often, as he was then Master of the Buccleuch Hunt; another paternal uncle, Lord Henry Scott, was equally enthusiastic about the hunt, who brought his friend, Cospatrick Douglas-Home, 11th Earl of Home. Princess Alice wrote: "Two days a week Uncle Henry and Cospatrick disappeared into Edinburgh to do something at a bank and thought themselves very hard worked; the rest of their time was spent hunting, shooting or fishing." Alice herself was keen on these activities, as testified to in the Illustrated London News, which wrote: "She was always very keen about hunting, and when at Eildon Hall missed very few meets."
caption: Eildon Hills, Melrose, Scotland
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