Gattonside
{{Short description|Village in Scottish Borders, Scotland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox UK place
| official_name = Gattonside
| country = Scotland
| static_image_name = Gattonside Suspension Bridge in Roxburghshire - geograph-3573054.jpg
| static_image_caption = Melrose to Gattonside Suspension Bridge
| area_total_sq_mi =
| area_total_km2 =
| area_footnotes =
| population = 381
| population_ref = (2001){{cite report |title=Local Development Plan Volume 2 |publisher=Scottish Borders Council |pages=328–330 |date=2016}}
| population_density =
| os_grid_reference = NT544350
| map_type = Scotland
| coordinates = {{coord|55.607|-2.726|display=inline,title}}
| post_town = MELROSE
| postcode_area = TD
| postcode_district = TD6
| dial_code = 01896
| constituency_westminster = Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
| civil_parish = Melrose
| edinburgh_distance_mi = 30
| edinburgh_distance_km =
| edinburgh_direction = NW
| london_distance_mi = 303
| london_distance_km =
| london_direction = SE
| gaelic_name =
| scots_name =
| community_scotland = Melrose and District
| unitary_scotland = Scottish Borders
| lieutenancy_scotland = Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale
| constituency_scottish_parliament = Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale
}}
Gattonside is a small village in the Scottish Borders. It is located {{convert|1|km}} north of Melrose, on the north side of the River Tweed. In 1143, the lands of Gattonside were granted to the monks of Melrose Abbey by King David I.{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townhistory3486.html |title=Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical |editor=Groome, Francis H. |year=1885 |accessdate=2010-07-01}}
Gattonside was the home of modernist architect Peter Womersley (1923–1993), whose self-designed house, The Rig (1956), is now a Category B listed building.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB50861|desc=Gattonside, The Rigg|cat=B|access-date=2019-03-20}}
The village is linked to Melrose, on the opposite side of the river, by the 19th-century Gattonside Suspension Bridge. Built in 1826, the bridge was repaired in 1992, and is protected as a Category B listed building.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB37744|desc=Chain Bridge|cat=B|access-date=2019-03-20|fewer-links=yes}} The plantation owner, Robert Waugh of Harmony Hall was a shareholder who on his death in 1832 left his shares to the poor of Melrose.{{Cite web|title=Summary of Individual {{!}} Legacies of British Slavery|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/1342713201|access-date=2021-06-11|website=www.ucl.ac.uk}}
Gattonside House
File:Gattonside House, Melrose, Scotland.jpg
Gattonside House was originally built c.1810.{{cite web |title=Dictionary of Scottish Architects - Gattonside, Melrose |url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200013 |website=www.scottisharchitects.org.uk}} James Brown (died 1816), a coffee planter in Jamaica who also owned the Bryan's Hill estate at the end of his life, lived there for some years to his death. It was then sold by his sons, James Mellor Brown and Abner William Brown.{{cite web |title=James Brown of Gattonside ???? – 20th Mar 1816 |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146639551 |website=www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs}}
Between 1821 and 1824 Gattonside House was the home of Sir Adam Ferguson, Deputy Keeper of the Scottish Regalia and close friend of Sir Walter Scott.[https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200348628-gattonside-house-including-chapel-former-coach-house-cottage-walled-garden-and-boundary-walls-leaderdale-and-melrose-ward#.W2xZMy2ZOS5 British Listed Buildings-Gattonside House]
The Gattonside estate was bought around 1825 by George Bainbridge (died 1844), a Liverpool merchant in the West Indies trade, and the house occupied by his son George Cole Bainbridge (1788–1839).{{cite book |last1=Colt |first1=George Frederick Russell |title=History & Genealogy of the Colts of that ilk and Gartsherrie, and of the English & American branches of that family |date=1887 |publisher=Printed for private circulation |location=Edinburgh |page=203 |url=https://archive.org/details/historygenealogy00colt/page/202/mode/2up}}{{cite web |title=George Cole Bainbridge |url=http://www.lordbyron.org/persRec.php?&selectPerson=GeBainb1839 |website=www.lordbyron.org}}{{cite book |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott |date=1837 |publisher=Carey, Lea & Blanchard |location=Philadelphia |page=266|volume=V |url=https://electricscotland.com/books/pdf/memoirs_of_life_of_sir_walter_scott5.pdf}} George Cole Bainbridge had married in 1808 Jane Hobson (died 1822), daughter of Richard Hobson of Shipscarr Lodge, Leeds, and had with her a large family. The house had alterations made, around the same time, by John Smith of Darnick.
Sarah Graham Bainbridge (1810–1837), absentee owner of the Lindale estate in Jamaica, died at Gattonside House.{{cite web |title=Sarah Graham Bainbridge 1810 - 11th Nov 1837 |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/19478 |website=www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs}} She was a first cousin to George Cole Bainbridge, the daughter of John Bainbridge of Lindale; George Bainbridge the elder was a younger brother of John, as sons of Thomas Bainbridge (1717–1799).
Around 1850 the house was bought by General Alexander Duncan HEICS.
The house was remodelled by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1914 and listed in 1971.{{Historic Environment Scotland|desc=GATTONSIDE HOUSE INCLUDING CHAPEL, FORMER COACH HOUSE, COTTAGE, WALLED GARDEN AND BOUNDARY WALLS |cat=B |num=LB15103|fewer-links=yes|access-date=2021-06-11}}