Having visited Threave Gardens before, we put our names down for a guided tour of the house this time. The name Threave is most likely derived from the Old Welsh Tref, meaning homestead.
The estate is one of the most diverse properties in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, supporting farming, forestry, horticulture, wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation. The National Trust has its School of Practical Gardening at Threave and provides residential courses here. Parts of the house are excluded from the tour because residential students live in flats in the house!
The 3000 acre estate was bought by William Gordon, a Liverpool businessman, who then decided to build a summer home for his large family. Threave House was designed by architect Charles Kinnear and is based on Castle Fraser in Aberdeenshire. It was built in the early 1870's from red sandstone. It has an impressive drum tower, housing the entrance to the house and if you look closely at the front door it has no keyhole! You can only enter if someone inside lets you in!
Love the thistle adornments on the doors!
A formal staircase then leads you from the entrance hall up into the remainder of the house.
Many of the rooms have been restored to what they looked like in the 1930's.
We then went downstairs to see the kitchen area.....
Many of the artefacts in this area have been donated to Threave House, but are what would have been in a kitchen of the time.
William Gordons grandson gave the house, gardens and estate to the National Trust for Scotland.
Although William was responsible for a formal garden in front of the house, the impressive gardens at Threave now are a series of gardens created over many years by students.
Seeing inside the house adds another piece to the jigsaw that is Threave. It is a house with quite a cosy, homely feel to it and one that would be a super summer home for a family.
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