Bute House

About

Bute House (Scottish Gaelic: Taigh Bhòid) is the official residence and workplace of the First Minister of Scotland. Located at 6 Charlotte Square in the New Town of Edinburgh, it is the central house on the north side of the square and was designed by Robert Adam. It has served as the official residence of every first minister since Donald Dewar in 1999, and prior to that, the Secretary of State for Scotland who headed the Scotland Office, from the 1970s until 1999. Bute House was conveyed to the National Trust for Scotland by the 6th Marquess of Bute in 1966.

The house is a Category A listed building and is constructed in an 18th century town house Neoclassical style, using sandstone materials. Designed by Robert Adam, Charlotte Square was designed by Adam as a single scheme, and it was part of architect James Craig’s First "New Town plan" which was unveiled in 1767, with Adam being commissioned in 1791 to design unified frontages for Charlotte Square. Together with Charlotte Square as a whole, Bute House has been described as "perhaps the finest architectural achievement of Georgian Edinburgh".