Archerfield
The first recorded occupants of the estate were the bowmen of King Edward I, after whom the area would later come to be named. They were encamped at Archerfield during the English advance in 1298. The signs of a village believed to date from the 11th century have also been discovered within the estate.
The centrepiece of the estate is Archerfield House, built in the late 17th century (from when the entrance bay and house centre date), once the seat of the Nisbet family, feudal barons and lairds of Dirleton. It has Palladian windows, and was substantially rebuilt by architect John Douglas c1745, and added to and altered throughout the 18th century, notably by Scottish architect Robert Adam who remodelled the interiors in 1790 for William Hamilton Nisbet of Dirleton (1747–1822). It is thought the now vanished park was laid out by Robert Robinson, c1775. William Hamilton Nisbet's daughter Mary was possibly the best known member of the family, having been married to Lord Thomas Bruce, (later Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin), who was credited at the time with saving the famous Elgin marbles from the ruins of the Parthenon, now in the British Museum, today a subject of controversy. The relationship ended in divorce, by Act of Parliament, in 1808, after she was accused of having an affair. Her father had assumed the additional surname of Hamilton on succeeding to the lands of Biel through his mother, a grandniece of the 2nd Lord Belhaven, and he moved his seat to Biel House near Stenton in East Lothian.
Archerfield House was subsequently rented out, with one famous tenant being Herbert Asquith, the British Prime Minister. Asquith reportedly entertained Franklin D. Roosevelt at Archerfield, when the D-Day landings of 1944 were the hot topic. The house later fell into disrepair and, after being demoted to the status of farm building, was eventually abandoned.
The estate was acquired in the 1950s by the Duke of Hamilton who had also acquired other property in East Lothian including Lennoxlove House prior to this time. However, following its sale in 2001, the house was completely renovated and is now an exclusive hotel, the centrepiece of a £55 million golfing development, catering to those wealthy enough to play their golf at the Archerfield Links.
Read more about this topic: Archerfield Estate And Links