Heritage grant set to restore Scott's home

Published on Sunday 29 March 2009 23:30

A £10 MILLION plan to turn around the fortunes of Sir Walter Scott's historic Borders home came a step closer yesterday when the Heritage Lottery Fund gave first-round approval to a £4.6 million grant.

The Ivanhoe author transformed a small farmhouse near Melrose into Abbotsford House, a grand 19th-century baronial mansion with oak panelling, a library of rare books, hunting trophies and suits of armour.

But the fading glory of the house, which opened to the public a year after his death in 1833, has seen visitor numbers dwindle to 30,000 a year.

A 10 million redevelopment was rolled out last year in a bid to revive it as a viable 21st-century tourist attraction, covering everything from car parking to architecture and restoration.

The first-round pass gives the Abbotsford Trust, which owns the house, up to two years to submit detailed plans for a stage two approval. They were granted 144,500 to work on the proposal.

The head of the fund in Scotland, Colin McLean, said: "Sir Walter Scott was one of Scotland's greatest writers and arguably the most influential Scot that has ever lived. Abbotsford was his creation, the landscape, the architecture, the interiors and they remain as he left it, although now in serious need of repair. There is no question that this great heritage site needs to be saved."