4h June Celebration of John Rennie
b 7/6/1761 d 4 /10 /1821
For background information see document already issued.
The exhibition “ John Rennie FRS eminent Civil Engineer” opens in The John Muir Birthplace High St Dunbar at 10am
We are to meet as a group at 1130
Lunch will be available in West barns Hall
Meet at 2 30 at the Memorial at Phantassie for a commemoration, followed by a walk through the grounds of Phantassie and tea at Prestonkirk Stables.
7th June 7 30 Lecture by Professor Roland Paxton
“ John Rennie’s improvement of Scotland’s infrastructure 1779/1821” in The Church of Prestonkirk followed by refreshments.
30th June 7 pm Johnstounburn
Originally a 17th century inn,extended in the 18th century and again in 1863 with a battlemented and turreted block.The garden front was further improved by Leadbetter and Fairley in 1895.
Johnstounburn was originally owned by the Borthwick family and later by the Brouns who carried out the 18th century improvements. It was purchased by Andrew Usher in 1884.
It was left by him to his daughter Mary Crookshank,the wife of the local MP.It was later sold.
It was for a time an hotel. It became a home again in 2002and the current owners Charles and Ruth Plowden have carried out extensive restorations.
The garden is now spectacular.
There is a fine doocot of 1730.Lectern type but unusual; see McWilliam p268.&
Doocots of Scotland, East Lothian; Dunn & Elder,p48
Johnstounburn is on the Humbie Soutra Road 1KmSSE from Humbie.
9th July Eyemouth
Meet at the Harbour to join the Puffin for a trip in a glass bottomed boat to view the wondrous beauty of the seabed as well as the interesting coastline. We can only have parties of 12 so are arranging two trips.
In Eyemouth there would be an opportunity to see the Maritime museum at the Harbour which we did not manage last time and possibly the museum about the Eyemouth Disaster or.The trips would be 1 ½ hrs and the fare is £10
6th August Abbotsford
The home of Sir Walter Scott from 1811 until his death in 1832.The building of Abbotsford was very much under Scott’s control. The NE wing was designed by William Atkinson and built by John and Thomas Smith of Darnick Scott’s original intention was to build a summer cottage but, as Lockhart said,because of his literary success, he was able to build not a cottage, but a castle.
Today his main rooms remain almost exactly as he planned them which means, that they may be the best preserved late Georgian interiors in Scotland
Because the family came under pressure to show the public Scott’s rooms from the start James Hope Scott in1853employed William Burn to build an extension for family use and altered access to the house to admit the tourists without too much impact on family life. He also had the public road moved.
see; Buildings of Scotland Cruft Dunbar and Fawcett p91 et seq.
The cost of admission to Abbotsford is £5 50 and the coach fare is £10
Coach leaves Dunbar at 1 pm.departs Abbotsford 4 15 pm.
11th September Sunday 12 30, Coach Tour
Commemorating Andrew Meikle bap 10 May 1719 d 11.11. 1811
We will visit Humbie where some of his family are buried.
then go to West Saltoun where James Meikle built the barley mill, the first of its kind in Britain for Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun and where Andrew was born in 1719.
We will proceed to Knowes mill a corn mill,on Tyninghame estate where he established himself in 1770. John Rennie was an apprentice to him there and then built a mill,on his own, there in 1779.[We will have heard about this on the 4th and 7th of June]. It was there that Meikle invented and perfected the threshing machine
We then go on to Tyninghame and then on to Prestonkirk, passing Preston Mill on which he did some repairs.
Near it is Houston Mill a waulk mill to which he came in 1749 and where he set up a workshop which was familiar to the Rennie sons who passed it on their way to school at prestonkirk. [We will have seen and heard about Houston mill on the 4th June].
We proceed to Meikle’s grave in the churchyard and to refreshment in Prestonkirk stables.
Vol XXVIII p43 et seq
The cost of the coach is £10 and £3[payable on the day]
Who will provide?Perhaps it will cost more.
Visit to Cramond 8th October at 2 30
We visit Roman Cramond.The Roman Fort was built as an outlier of the Antonine Wall c 142 AD.It became a base for the campaigns in the north by Septimus Severus in 298AD and was occupied for some time after that.
We will have a guided walk cost £2. Make your own way to Cramond
The Roman remains are at the junction of Cramond Glebe Road and the Esplanade
