Pearlin' Jean
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Part of the appeal and romance of Scotland’s lost mansions and country houses houses comes from the fanciful tales and legends often associated with them. These imposing structures, for example, often came with their own ghostly apparitions.
Old Allanbank House, which was situated near the confluence of the Blackadder and Whiteadder Waters, over a mile south of Chirnside, was famous for the fable of Pearlin’ Jean.
Various versions of her story are told.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad

In essence Pearlin’ Jean was a lady, some say a nun, whom Robert Stuart, the laird of Allanbank, met in Paris at the conclusion of his Grand Tour in the 1670s.
Steuart, a Leith merchant and son of Sir James Steuart of Coltness in Lanarkshire, had purchased the lands of Allanbank (formerly called East Nisbet) around 1676 and rebuilt the old 12th century castle of East Nisbet, built by the Nisbet family.
The couple fell passionately in love.
The affair continued until Steuart was summoned to return to Scotland.
As he boarded his carriage at the door of his Paris lodgings a weeping Jean swept forward beseeching him to stay, but Steuart instructed his coachmen to drive on, knocking Jean to the ground with a rear wheel passing over her head leaving her for dead.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdShe arrived at Allanbank before Steuart, however, sitting above the entrance arch welcoming him home with his new bride, her head and shoulders streaming with blood.
Steuart, who would go on to live at Allanbank with his two wives, seven children, a chaplain and 19 domestic servants till his death in 1707, had become landlord to one of Scotland’s most famous ghosts.
For over 150 years, pale and sad, clad in rustling silks and draped with quantities of beautiful lace (or pearlin’), Jean walked the corridors and grounds of Allanbank.
It is said her troubled wanderings only ceased when a new Allanbank House was built in 1848 by Lucy Anne Boswall, who commissioned architect David Bryce to replace the old Steuart residence on the Allanbank estate with a compact two-storey Scottish Baronial style mansion.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdNo ghostly sightings were to be associated with the new residence, which was demolished in 1969. A more modest new house now stands on the footprint of the original house.
For more on Allanbank House, and other lost Borders mansions, read Dan’s Farewell Grandeur – Lost Mansions and Houses of Southern Scotland (2024), available from local bookstores, Amazon and online at mansionhousechronicler.bigcartel.com.