House of the Binns

The House of the Binns, or simply the Binns, is a historic house in West Lothian, Scotland, the seat of the Dalyell family (pronounced dee el). It dates from the early 17th century, and was the home of Tam Dalyell until his death in January 2017.

The estate is situated on two hills (bens from Gaelic) from which its name is derived. It is set in 200 acres (80 ha) of parkland, and the house enjoys panoramic views of central Scotland: to the north, across the River Forth to the Highlands, and south over the Pentland Hills. The house contains a collection of porcelain, furniture, and portraits tracing the family's lives and interests through the centuries.

Perhaps inhabited since prehistoric times, Binns Hill may have been the site of a Pictish fort. Written records begin in 1335, and record a land of the "Bynnis". There was certainly a manor house here by 1478, when records indicate the owner was an Archibald Meldrum, son of the late James Meldrum of the Bynnis. In 1599, it was owned by James Lord Lyndsay, who sold it to Sir William Livingston of Kilsyth. In 1612 the estate was purchased by a wealthy and well-connected Edinburgh burgess, Thomas Dalyell. Dalyell was a butter merchant, who had become prosperous importing butter from Orkney to Leith (to be sold as axle grease). In 1601, he had married the daughter of Edward Lord Kinloss and, when the Scots King James VI ascended to the English throne and Kinloss was made his Master of the Rolls in London, Dalyell obtained the lucrative post of deputy. In that senior position, he acquired enough of a fortune to return to Scotland and join the landed gentry. He bought "the lands of Bynnis and Croceflattis wirth the manor place thereof", and the Dalyell family have lived there ever since. Between 1621 and 1630, this Thomas Dalyell rebuilt the original house, and parts of the interior still reflect that period; in particular the north-west portion of the present entrance front, and decoration of the High Hall and King's Room (created in the hope of a visit from Charles I, which never came to be). These rooms still contain examples of some of the earliest cornices and mouldings in Scotland. Thomas Dalyell's more famous son, the Royalist General Sir Tam Dalyell continued the development of the house, adding the first of the towers, and the western range.

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