Georgian Historic Wallpaper Designs
Gunsgreen House was built between 1752 and 1754 by an Eyemouth merchant, John Nisbet, who like many people in this part of Scotland led a double life as an apparently respectable member of society and as a notorious smuggler. The house which he built to mark his own success was designed by the most famous architect in Edinburgh, John Adam of Blair Adam, Mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain, and the eldest son of William Adam who in the early Georgian period had been the designer most employed by the Scottish nobility for its building work.
In 1998 Gunsgreen stood empty and had been virtually abandoned and its future hung in the balance. After years of institutional use little of value survived, windows were broken and interiors were half dismantled.
However that summer Gunsgreen was to be rescued. The Gunsgreen House Trust (Registered Scottish Charity No. 028062) was established . Since then this historic house has been restored and conserved. But more than that it now tells the tale of his history and its inhabitants.
The entrance floor and basement have been transformed from the Golf Club locker rooms to reflect their former use as Georgian reception rooms, the cellars are home to an interactive exhibition on the history of smuggling , highly fitting for the space where John Nisbet stored his merchandise in times gone by.
