Auchinleck House, built between 1755 and 1760 by Alexander Boswell, father of James Boswell (1740 – 1795) the celebrated diarist and biographer of Samuel Jonhnson.

The house, which stands just north west of the village of Auchinleck is the third to be built on an estate granted to Boswell’s forebears in the 14th century.

For a long time the house was thought to have been designed by the Adams brothers, and it can be compared with nearby Dumfries House, which is known to be their work, and was built in the same period. Expenditure on the estate peaked between 1758 and 1760 and window tax was paid on the house in 1760 for thirty-one windows. At the end of May 1762 Lord Auchinleck finally paid ‘James Bowie Slater in Air’ for 18,000 Esdale slates at £1.9s.0d per thousand.

The estate which surrounds Auchinleck House has several interesting features and even today the surrounding landscape bears the imprint of the tree planting campaigns of Boswell and his father. On the banks of the Lugar Water, west of the house, lie the ruins of the former family seat, the Old Place, built in 1612 to replace the Old Castle, whose ruins have almost disappeared.

Closer to the house the bridge across the Dippol Burn has been extensively repaired, and on the picturesque banks below the bridge is an ovoid ice-house hewn out of rock. Here ice cut in the winter was stored for summer use, or alternatively salted meat was stored.

After the war the house began a period of decline as it was uninhabited from the early 1950s. In 1986 it was acquired by the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, who in 1999 turned to the Landmark Trust, which has restored the house and lets it for holidays to those wishing to experience the historic atmosphere of this splendid house.