The Hirsel

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry Arrow

Hirsel, The, a seat of the Earl of Home in Coldstream parish, Berwickshire, on the right bank of Leet Water, 1¾ mile NNW of Coldstream town. A spacious sandstone edifice, it stands amid beautiful grounds, adorned with very fine woods and with an artificial lake (2 x 1¼ furl. ). Stone coffins and great quantities of human bones have been exhumed on the grounds. Charles-Alexander-Douglas-Home, seventeenth Baron Home since 1473, and twelfth Earl of Home since 1605 (b. 1834 ; suc. 1881), holds 2597 acres in Berwickshire, valued at £5245 per annum.—Ord. Sur., sh. 26, 1864. See also Hume, Bothwell, and Douglas Castle.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better