On the Canongate, the lower part of the Royal Mile, the house known as 'Huntly House' holds the Museum of Edinburgh. Its Renaissance interest is first architectural: it is a fine jettied house of the late sixteenth century, a witness of the urban dwelling of Renaissance Scotland.
A jettied dwelling of 1570
The building was constructed around 1570, in the full period, as a late-sixteenth-century residence. It is a fine example of a jettied house: the upper floors advance progressively over the street, gaining space in height — a technique typical of the dense urban architecture of the time, in Edinburgh as elsewhere. Its façade with gables and projections illustrates the taste and constraints of the old town. Tradition associates it with the Clan Gordon and George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly (hence its name), but this residence is disputed.
The container more than the content
One must be honest about the Renaissance link of the place: the building does date from the period, but its most famous heritage piece — the original exemplar of the National Covenant — belongs to 1638, that is after our window (1485-1625). The 1485-1625 interest of Huntly House is therefore real but moderate: it is the container, the house itself, that bears witness to the Scottish Renaissance, more than its collections. The museum also presents Scottish decorative arts — glass, Edinburgh and Canongate silver. To see: the jettied façade of c. 1570, the Scottish decorative arts (glass, silver), (collection: National Covenant, 1638).
Did you know?
Threatened with demolition in the early twentieth century, Huntly House was saved and bought by the City of Edinburgh in 1924 to become its museum. The inhabitants, for their part, continued to call it 'Huntly House' despite its new official name — proof that a popular nickname, attached to a house for centuries, resists better than many administrative names. The house of 1570 thus owes its survival to the double loyalty of a city and its inhabitants.
Notes
Museum of Edinburgh (Huntly House) lies at 142-146 Canongate, Edinburgh; a municipal museum open to the public. Hours to check.
Quiz
- From when does the Huntly House building date?
- From around 1570
- From 1850
- From Roman times
- What is a 'jettied' house?
- A house whose floors advance over the street
- An underground house
- A round house
- Is the centrepiece (National Covenant) within our period?
- No, it is of 1638 (outside the window)
- Yes, from 1500
- It does not exist