I’ve been meaning to visit Dumfries House for absolutely ages and last week we got around to it at last. I thought it would have taken us longer to get there, it was about a two hour drive from Fife, but we stayed in the area overnight so we would have plenty of time to look around. The house is part of the Prince’s Foundation, does it have to be called the King’s Foundation now? Anyway, the fine Georgian mansion was due to be auctioned off piece by piece and some furniture was actually in a London auction house, when the then Prince Charles stepped in and organised a financial rescue package for it. The name of the house is somewhat confusing as it isn’t near the town of Dumfries, it’s actually in Cumnock, Ayrshire. It was designed by the Adam brothers – Robert, John and James.

Sadly they don’t allow people to take photos inside, suffice to say that it’s well worth a visit, it has all sorts of bits and pieces in it and glorious furniture, including Chippendale pieces, one cabinet is valued at £25 million! But I loved the clocks and the huge orrery which is 260 years old, so of course isn’t correct now.

Below is the back of the house, where the guided tour begins.

The whole place is incredibly vibrant with all sorts of things going on educationally with lots of apprenticeships available, and it is now the second largest employer in the county.

The Lugar Water runs through the estate and there are some lovely bridges spanning it. But I’ll leave that and the grounds for another blogpost.

You can see the Education Tour in the You Tube video below.

If you’re interested in the history of the house you can read about it here.