IT is a dilapidated but elegant Scottish country house, built in the 18th century by a powerful lawyer for his summer parties outside Edinburgh.
Now little-known Drummohr House, near Musselburgh in East Lothian, is to be at the centre of a new open-air arts venue, for at least the next ten years.
Findlay Lockie, a lawyer and "restorer of houses", has bought the severely dilapidated mansion, and while he spends the next ten years turning into a family home, he has made a long term deal with a noted arts company, which will use the estate's wood to hold a series of open-air "augmented reality" shows.
One of these shows - Quest for Oz, inspired by the works of Wizard of Oz writer Frank Baum and staged by formerly Leith-based company Vision Mechanics, led by director Symon Macintyre - will begin next week.
Vision Mechanics will now be based in the 'big shed' next to Drummohr House and plan to stage their events in the woods for the coming years, as well as using the shed as workshop and arts space.
READ MORE: The Dragons of Drummohr
The 34-room Drummohr House dates from the 1740s, when the Dalrymple family built it as a summer home, a replacement for a previous house that had been burned to the ground by Jacobites.
After changing hands, and having architectural additions added, it fell largely into disuse after its last year as a full working farm in 1918.
Since then it has been used as a monastery, an outbuilding for the nearby Loretto School, a hotel and a care home.
Mr Lockie, who says he is the "opposite of a developer, because I am going to reverse what has happened to the building in the last 100 years", said he is delighted that its 10 acres of woods, until recently overgrown and full of rubbish, will be home to arts events.
Mr Lockie, 60, has spent nearly 20 years restoring Northfield House in Prestonpans, which is now on the market.
He said: "I knew about this house for 30 years, and its various iterations, but I was taking my son to nursery and we saw it and looked in - it was clearly derelict, but a sleeping beauty which demands some attention."
The house has dry rot, and much of it is not habitable, with no wiring or plumbing: however inside the large drawing room, which the Dalrymples used for dancing and entertaining, is still in place.
READ MORE: Neil Cooper on Vision Mechanics' Little Light
After settling a series of complicated land ownership issues - with several parties owning the surrounding land - Mr Lockie is now the owner.
On the land near the main house is a substantial shed, and it is here that Vision Mechanics will be based, a large space where they can manufacture and stage shows, as well as hire out space for other artists.
The shed will be the home of the Emerald City for the new show.
Mr Lockie said: "Symon was my dream partner for this.
"We had two imperatives - one was to restore the house, the other is the financial one...and so the big questions was, what to do with the big shed? I thought do we really want to use it for storage, and then I met this wonderful man - through a Scottish reel group - and we talked about his amazing artistic endeavours.
"He lives in the arts world, a different world from mine, but I am starting to understand it now, and he came for a walk in the woods - and the woods had been neglected for 35 years - and we became excited.
"It turned out Vision Mechanics needed a new home, so it is a ten year agreement, but I hope it is a 20 year agreement."
Mr McIntyre said the deal was a "marriage made in heaven."
He said: "What really excited me was the potential of the woods, and although they needed clearing up - we removed four skips of rubbish - they have a great atmosphere."
READ MORE: The work of Vision Mechanics
Quest for Oz uses installations, lighting, and other effects to create a "part game, part immersive theatrical storytelling, part art & sound installation."
It runs from October 4 to 28 and it aimed at a family audience, and its organisers expect 5,000 people to visit.
It has been funded by Creative Scotland, East Lothian Council and Event Scotland.
Mr Lockie added: "If we combine this with interested, artistic people are here and working every day, the shed is being maintained and these events are taking place which are creating an aura around the house, then the house is no longer a derelict, a liability, and a blot on the landscape.
"I don't want people to think it is now a public park - it is a private house - but we seem to have reached this combination exactly right, because there is interesting stuff going on from time to time, and people can see the house is being brought back to life."
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