The 'John Buchan Story' Museum

About Chambers Institution

This building is locally called the Queensberry Lodgings after the Queensberry branch of the Douglas family. William, second Earl of March, purchased the building in 1696. He had one son, also called William, who was born in the Lodging in December 1725 and eventually became the fourth Earl of March in 1778. Old Q as he was called, cared little for his properties and spent a great deal of his time in London living an extravagant life, Old Q died in 1810 and in spite of his lifestyle, he left personal property estimated at about £1,000.000.

Dr William Chambers (co-founder of the famous publishers} who was born in Biggiesknowe, gifted the building to the town in 1859. Chambers substantially altered the building and added to it to include a library, reading and study rooms and an art gallery for public use. These can all be accessed from the door in the corner on your right as you enter the quadrangle. Within is the ‘Secret Room' - so called because it was closed to the public for many years. The room was opened to the public in 1990. Here you will find a reproduction f the marble frieze taken by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon in Athens. There is also a copy of the " Triumph of Alexander" dating from the 19th century, Chambers also had a “Great Hall" built which forms one side of the quadrangle and is entered separately. A further alteration to the building was carried out in 1912 when the library was extended, funded by the Dunfermline philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

In the courtyard of thry building is one of the finest war memorials in the Borders, dating from 1922. Brilliant mosaics based on a 12th century design surround the bronze tablets with the names of the dead.