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8 Jul 2021

What’s new at Newhailes?

Written by The Roving Reporter
A view of the grand exterior of Newhailes House, seen from beneath leafy horse chestnut trees. A large gravel drive sweeps up to the stone entrance staircase.
The leafy gardens in front of Newhailes House
If you’re looking for a fun day out with family and friends, that’s also filled with history, Newhailes is the perfect place to go. Read on to find out why.

As soon as you arrive in the courtyard, you can go to a lovely café and sit outside. The atmosphere is bright and refreshing and the courtyard is a welcoming place to sit. There’s also a little ice cream shop in the old dairy that sells varieties of old sweets as well. This part was my personal favourite. There were lots of flavours of ice cream to choose from and luckily they had my favourite flavour, mint choc chip. It was very delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A view of an ice cream counter set up in an old tiled dairy. A range of brightly coloured flavours can be seen in the cabinet. Wooden shelves line the wall, filled with jars of traditional boiled sweets. A view of a cobbled courtyard, seen through a stone archway. Picnic tables and chairs with large umbrellas are set out in the courtyard. In the foreground is an A-board with a menu for the Stables café.

The tour of the house was very interesting and I enjoyed learning about many things, such as the fact that the dining room is still almost exactly the same colour as it was when the house was first built.

I also liked learning about how the massive library was once filled with books but because of the lack of money, they had to be sold (part of the collection was also acquired by the National Library of Scotland). I was excited to be able to go through the servant passages that were hidden in the rooms and to learn that they were not to be seen at all by guests staying at the house.

A view of a green painted wall in a very grand house. The wall has a number of gold-framed portraits hanging on it, above a white marble fireplace. A tapestry fireguard stands beside the fireplace.
The green dining room, which has only been painted twice since the house was built.

The beautiful gardens were bright and colourful, even in the rain, and I enjoyed being able to walk through them. Overall, the experience was great and I highly recommend visiting Newhailes.

Thank you to our young writer Margaret for reviewing her trip to Newhailes.

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