The Scotsman

Scots Baronial arose in the 19th century, reviving the architecture of what was considered a Scottish golden age from the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries. Buildings such as Glamis Castle and Craigievar Castle or George Heriot's Hospital, bristling with turrets and battlements, seemed quintessentially Scottish. If one person can be said to be the founder of Baronial style, it is Sir Walter Scott. Just as Scotland started to become assimilated into North Britain, he invented the historical novel and re-imagined Scotland as a land of romantic castles. From the profits of the phenomenally popular Waverley novels, he bought a farmhouse near Melrose in 1814, renamed it Abbotsford and added battlements, a few turrets and the odd tower outside. He decorated the interior with a mixture of genuine features rescued from earlier buildings and fake plaster ceilings grained to look like wood. The result is as fictional, and enjoyable, as anything in his stories.