Prestige viewing: An East Lothian six-bedroomed family home that is extravagantly rich in period detail

The Lodge, Aberlady, East Lothian offers over £1.75m

Firstly, there’s the turret, which may be thought an unusual feature for a house in a small village.

Step inside and the grandeur continues, as the house is packed with extravagant period detail, such as the intricate cornicing picked out in gold and a stunning stained glass window in a Pre-Raphaelite style which overlooks the stair.

The owners, Ghill and Karine Donald, bought The Lodge 12 years ago and Ghill maintains it was this house in particular that persuaded them to move away from Edinburgh. He remembers: “I’d had my eye on it for about five years and thought if it ever comes on the market, I’d be interested.”

While the Donalds completed on the purchase very quickly, the move for the family, which included daughters Jessica and Tessa, wasn’t exactly straightforward.

Ghill explains: “It needed a lot of work. We put in a new kitchen, replaced the electrics, put in a new boiler system, including replacing all the piping as it was lead. So there was a lot to be done”.

Not least of their worries was that The Lodge is a B-listed house in a conservation area, so the couple had to proceed with caution.

The key, alongside the practical measures, was preserving everything that makes the house special, such as the original parquet flooring and ornate fireplaces in the principal rooms.

Ghill reveals: “The wallpaper in the sitting room is original and can’t be touched as it dates from 1863.”

Working around such special features takes consideration, particularly when replacing items that couldn’t be restored. Ghill says: “Karine sourced items that were right for the era. She found Victorian light fittings which had been taken out of Galashiels Town Hall during the war, for instance. And then we found a specialist to renovate them, to make sure the authenticity was kept.”

“You don’t get houses like this anymore, so you do need to be very sympathetic to enhance what is already there.”

The result is a really lovely family home with all its original character intact. It has five bedrooms, a sitting room, drawing room, dining room and dining-kitchen, as well as the new garden room added in 2018.

There is also space in the three-storey turret for a grand entrance on the ground floor, a spectacular bathroom on the first and an octagonal reading room with coastal views on the top floor.

The grounds are really special too, with a beautiful rose garden in front, a courtyard with a fountain and a sheltered rear garden with a patio area. The coach house has garaging, a hayloft, a gym, and a gardener’s room.

A fascinating history of the house was published in East Lothian Life magazine with the author, Ailsa Fortune, meticulously recording all the characters who occupied the dwelling, from its days as a rustic thatched cottage in the 1700s to the grand home it is today.

The article has some fascinating detail, such as the late-Victorian period owner Francis Punton, who inherited a large fortune but had a tendency “for self-indulgence and capriciousness”. His makeover of The Lodge added the classically-styled friezes,emblazoned with his initials as a visual badge of wealth.

He also added the turret, from which he could watch his cargo ships, with holds full of barley, on their passage from Leith to his maltings in Winchester.

Ghill explains that many of the facts were unknown to him before, but says: “When I read Ailsa’s article, I did feel that we’ve done our part for the house. You find out about all the previous owners who came in and made improvements and we’ve just been the latest in a long line.”

The Lodge, Aberlady, East Lothian, is priced at offers over £1.75m.

For more information, contact Rettie & Co. on 0131-624 9087.