Gifford Architecture, East Lothian houses, Property images, Hotel, Church building, Home architect

Gifford Buildings, East Lothian

post updated 18 May 2025

The village in southeast Scotland takes its name from the 13th-century Sir Hugo de Giffard of Yester. His ancient Scoto-Norman family possessed the baronies of Yester, Morham, and Duncanlaw in Haddingtonshire, and Tayling and Poldame in the counties of Perthshire and Forfar.

Buildings in eastern Scotland – Architectural Developments + Property

Gifford Architecture

Looking south from centre:

Tweedale Arms

Goblin Ha Hotel

View of axial village building

View east down High St towards Gifford church

The earliest recorded presence of a church in the area is in 1241, the ruins of which lie in the woods beside Yester House, to the south-west of the village centre. A church also once stood at Duncanlaw, a former settlement to the south-east of the main village. The present building (in the centre of the village) was built in 1710.

Yester House, just south of Gifford
1699-1728
James Smith and Alexander MacGill, with interventions by William & Robert Adam

Gifford church

Gifford house: The Rink – featured on the Edinburgh Architecture website
Date built: 1963
Design: Campbell & Arnott Architects
The occupant at the time of writing is charming architect Ian Arnott, who used to run the architecture practice that built the house (and two houses I have lived in, Editor Adrian Welch)

The first Hugo de Giffard’s grandson, Hugh de Giffard, was a noted magician who built Yester Castle (half a mile south-east of the present-day Yester House), the ruins and an underground chamber (the ‘Goblin Ha’) of which can be seen in Yester Wood. The same Hobgoblin Hall featured in the poem “Marmion” by Walter Scott.

The Mercat Cross was built in 1780 and is still standing in the centre of the village.

Gifford restaurants reviews : Goblin Ha’ Hotel + Tweeddale Arms Hotel – featured on the Edinburgh Architecture site’s restaurants page

Location: Gifford, Scotland