Tuesday June 30th 2026
Alderston House, north of Haddington, was once earmarked as an East Lothian crematorium
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
An historic house once earmarked to become an East Lothian crematorium after years of public service is set to be turned into housing in a bid to save it.
Alderston House, north of Haddington, was built in the late 18th century and has been used as a convalescence home for farm workers and a training school for nurses.
In more recent years the Category B Listed mansion was used as East Lothian Council offices but they moved out over a decade ago and plans to convert it into a crematorium fell through.
Now, new owners have stepped forward with plans to preserve the heritage of the house by converting it into housing and building additional homes, including a holiday let, on the land surrounding it to fund the work.
An application has been lodged with council planners to alter and extend the main house to create three houses and eight flats, as well as building an additional four houses and one holiday let cabin on the grounds.
A report on the proposal says the state of the main house currently requires additional funding to retain it and additional housing is needed on the land to support the work.
It says: “A significant level of investment is now needed to return the premises into a sound state of repair. The end value of the premises as a single commercial unit (present use class) or single house (former use class) would be considerably less than this following analysis of the current market resulting in a significant conservation deficit.
“As such, consideration has been given to enabling development at several locations within the grounds to help fund the repair and conversion of the heritage asset, but also to bring a sense of community and neighbourly security/surveillance to the site.
“Consideration has been given to each location to mitigate the potential impact on the listed building and its designed landscape (including the protection of the mature trees and enhance biodiversity).”
It says the benefits if the proposal if approved will be to prevent the listed building falling into “irretrievable condition” and restore its original features and character as well as removing unsympathetic additions to it.
The plans have been lodged on East Lothian Council’s planning portal for viewing.
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