Leuchie House 

‘Client and designer walked round the Leuchie estate together. They agreed that the best place for the hothouses was against the high wall of the vegetable garden. Sir Hew had many ideas. So did Mr Loudon. Finding a patch of freshly dug and raked earth, he picked up a hoe and began to draw a plan on the ground. This gave Sir Hew another idea so the designer raked over the soil and started again.’ This is a quote from The Claudians: gardens, landscapes, reason and faith: John Claudius Loudon and Claudius Buchanan, Tom Turner (Kindle, 2024).

More about Loudon’s work for the Leuchie estate

The estate survives in good condition and is now a respite care home (not open to the public). Loudon documented individual farms and fields on the estate, including field names, use and soil characteristics. This was intended as a comprehensive reference for managing agricultural resources. He also made a physical model that could be used to visualise design alternatives before implementing them on the actual estate. Additionally, Loudon provided a wire mesh net. Each square of the mesh corresponded to an acre so that the landowner could calculate its size. Loudon believed that unlike static maps, his model could adapt to evolving land use and management practices.