Who had a 16th-century tower house in the Border country?
Bruce's early work involved advising clients and rebuilding existing houses, rather than designing new buildings from scratch. Panmure House and Leslie House (seat of the Earl of Rothes) had been projects of the king's master mason John Mylne. At Panmure, although Bruce has been credited with the design in the past, the works were overseen by Alexander Nisbet, although Bruce did design the gates and gate piers. At Leslie, Bruce oversaw the works after Mylne's death, and probably made his own amendments. Panmure was demolished in the 1950s, and only a small part of Leslie House remains standing, following a fire in the 18th century. Bruce later advised the Duke of Queensberry regarding his plans for Drumlanrig Castle.
Bruce also worked on his own property at Balcaskie, Fife, which he bought in 1665, and which does survive intact, although with later alterations. He doubled the L-plan house to a near-symmetrical U-plan, and may have built the curving wing-walls and linking pavilions. Gifford, however, attributes these to a later building phase. The curving walls, a form later seen at Hopetoun, were a new innovation if Bruce did carry them out, possibly inspired by the work of the Italian Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In the gardens he laid out parterres and stepped "Italian" terraces, with a vista leading the eye to the Bass Rock, all inspired by French baroque gardens such as Vaux-le-Vicomte. Internally, Bruce created a new layout of rooms, and it was for his continental-inspired internal planning, as much as his exterior design, that he was sought after as an architect.In 1670 the Duke of Lauderdale commissioned Bruce to remodel Thirlestane Castle, his 16th-century tower house in the Border country. Bruce, working with King's master mason Robert Mylne, extended the building with new corner pavilions and a new entrance, and re-planned the interior. Lauderdale continued to employ Bruce, often working closely with Lord Haltoun, Lauderdale's brother, during the 1670s, on his homes at Brunstane near Edinburgh, and Lethington (later renamed Lennoxlove), as well as commissioning a design for new gates at his English property, Ham House, near London, in 1671. At Ham Bruce may have had further involvement with the remodelling works going on there, under the direction of the English architect William Samwell. While engaged at Thirlestane, Bruce also designed the nearby Lauder Kirk, his only complete church. One of very few 17th century cruciform-plan churches in Scotland, it may have been inspired by François Mansart's similar church at Balleroy in France.
the Duke of Lauderdale