The visitor arriving at Monteviot does not immediately see the Georgian house which faces south towards the river, but is greeted by Schomberg Scott’s new frontage of 1962-3 and Blore’s gabled, dressed sandstone east wing of 1830-2 with, at its north end, the 9th Marquis’s picturesque water tower of 1877.
Schomberg Scott’s work is pink-harled with stone trimmings, tall sash windows and carved heraldry devised by Don Pottinger. The stone plaques over the windows, from east to west, are carved with family ciphers and symbols: AN (for Antonella Newland, Marchioness of Lothian); a stag’s head (one of the Kerr crests); LL and a coronet (entwined Ls for Lord and Lady Lothian); a unicorn’s head (a unicorn is the sinister supporter of the Lothian arms); PK (for Peter Kerr, Marquis of Lothian); the full quartered Lothian arms (Kerr of Lothian and Kerr of Jedburgh) topped with the sun in splendour crest of the family (over the main entrance); and to the right, the Lothian knot.
Over the side entrance in the west wing (added in 1978) is a weathered marriage stone of 1558 (the original of which is near the tennis court) and, on the carved keystone, a linked cipher for Michael and Jane Ancram. The two large stone urns flanking the main entrance are early Eighteenth Century and come from Ancrum House.
The pitched slate roof over the hall is a recent addition which greatly improves the appearance of the house, as well as being of practical benefit.