About the burial ground
Hundy Mundy Wood is a mature Scot’s pine and beech wood in an elevated position on the Mellerstain Estate. Mellerstain is one of the great houses of Scotland and its history has been entangled with national history for nearly five hundred years. Hundy Mundy is in fact the name of the gothic folly which stands prominently within a gap in the trees.
The wood is part of a historic, designed landscape of one of Scotland’s great Georgian houses, which was begun in 1725 by architect William Adam and completed seventy years later by his famous son, Robert.
The Gothic folly was built to draw the eye to the southern extent of Mellerstain House in the Scottish Borders. It is a tall archway between square towers, each topped by a stone pyramid.
It was built with stone from an old tower house that had once guarded this area against marauding ‘reivers’ and thieves. A Pictish Princess called Hunimundias was said to have lived in this tower. Apparently, the children of Mellerstain couldn’t pronounce Hunimundias, they called it Hundy Mundy. And that name remains today.
