Ayton is a
grand neo-baronial red sandstone castle, built between 1845 and 1848 for William
Mitchell-Innes, to the plans of James Gillespie-Graham. It is a confection of turrets,
towers, waterspouts and corbie-stepped gables. Mitchell-Innes’s son, Alexander,
inherited the castle and added to it. When he died in 1886 the castle was sold to Henry
Liddell, whose descendants still own it, though it was used for a time as a girls’
school.
The dining room proper has a
large bay window overlooking the Eye valley, and has silver polo trophies, African
statuettes, 17th century mirrors, and a replica fireplace – the original was removed
and sold to the American author, Mark Twain, who had fallen in love with it. |
