Belmont House is a neo-classical Georgian country house estate on the island of

Unst Unst (; ) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Shetland Mainland, Mainland and Yell (island), Yell. It has an area o ...

, the most northerly of the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

, United Kingdom. It was constructed in 1775 by Shetland landowner Thomas Mouat of Garth who was a local Shetlander. The Estate has been described as "possibly the most ambitious, least-altered classical mansion in the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles (; ; ) are a chain (or archipelago) of Island, islands of Scotland, located off the north coast of the Scottish mainland. The climate is cool and temperate and highly influenced by the surrounding seas. There are two main is ...

." The house was restored from a derelict state between 1996 and 2010 by the community and local interest groups and Trust. Belmont House is protected as a

category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

, and the grounds are included on the

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...

, the national listing of significant gardens.

Gardens

Walled gardens are laid out to the south of the house. These were originally restored by The Belmont Trust with walls restored and trees and shrubs planted and miantained and added to by the owners (Wilsons) with British species of Roses and Fruit Trees.

History

Belmont was built in 1775, with the farm square to the rear complete by 1790; together they form "miniature Palladian classical groups with flanking pavilion wings". Surrounding enclosures including garden grounds form a regular layout running down to the sea. The house and adjacent farm square are designated category A, and the grounds are included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. The house was built for Thomas Mouat, whose father William was

laird Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...

of the Garth estate in Shetland. Thomas Mouat visited

Lothian Lothian (; ; ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other signific ...

, around Edinburgh, to gather ideas on contemporary architecture, and may have been influenced by

Hopetoun House Hopetoun House is a country house near South Queensferry owned by the Hopetoun House Preservation Trust, a charity established in 1974 to preserve the house and grounds as a national monument, to protect and improve their amenities, and to pre ...

. In the early 19th century, the east wing was added to the house (now demolished), but it has otherwise remained unaltered. The Mouat family continued to occupy the house until the mid-20th century. It was then sold and became derelict. From 1996 and over the following 15 years works were carried out, largely by local craftsmen, to bring the building back into use. The property was sold in 2022 to the Wilson family who now use the House as their home and Bed and Breakfast retreat for visitors to the island of Unst. The original interiors are described by

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

as "a particularly remarkable survival."

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline
Belmont House website
Category A listed buildings in Shetland Listed houses in Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Houses completed in 1775 Country houses in Shetland Unst