Yester Parish Church

Gifford is a village in the parish of Yester in East Lothian, Scotland. It lies approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Haddington and 25 miles (40 km) east of Edinburgh. It groups around the Colstoun Water (locally called Gifford Water) at the junction of the B6369 and B6355 surrounded by rural farmland.

Gifford Town Hall is a municipal building in The Square, Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. The structure, which is used as a community events venue, is a Category B listed building.

Gifford railway station served the village of Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland, from 1901 to 1933 on the Macmerry Branch.

East Lothian (; Scots: East Lowden; Scottish Gaelic: Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the historic county was incorporated for local government purposes into Lothian Region as East Lothian District, with some slight alterations of its boundaries. The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 later created East Lothian as one of 32 modern council areas. East Lothian lies south of the Firth of Forth in the eastern central Lowlands of Scotland. It borders Edinburgh to the west, Midlothian to the south-west and the Scottish Borders to the south. Its administrative centre and former county town is Haddington while the largest town is Musselburgh. Haddingtonshire has ancient origins and is named in a charter of 1139 as Hadintunschira and in another of 1141 as Hadintunshire. Three of the county's towns were designated as royal burghs: Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick. As with the rest of Lothian, it formed part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia and later the Kingdom of Northumbria. Popular legend suggests that it was at a battle between the Picts and Angles in the East Lothian village of Athelstaneford in 823 that the flag of Scotland was conceived. From the 10th century, Lothian transferred from the Kingdom of England to the authority of the monarchs of Scotland. It was a cross-point in battles between England and Scotland and later the site of a significant Jacobite victory against Government forces in the Battle of Prestonpans. In the 19th century, the county is mentioned in the Gazetteer for Scotland as chiefly agricultural, with farming, fishing and coal-mining forming significant parts of the local economy.

Yester House is an early 18th-century mansion near Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. It was the home of the Hay family, later Marquesses of Tweeddale, from the 15th century until the late 1960s. Construction of the present house began in 1699, and continued well into the 18th century in a series of building phases. It is now protected as a category A listed building, and the grounds of the house are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.

Yester Chapel is situated on the estate of Yester House, at the south-east edge of the village of Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. The chapel is situated at grid reference NT544671. It is a Category A listed building.

Yester Castle is a ruined castle, located 1+1⁄2 miles (2.5 kilometres) southeast of the village of Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. The only remaining complete structure is the subterranean Goblin Ha' or Hobgoblin Ha' (Goblin Hall). It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Bolton Parish Church is a church in Bolton, East Lothian, Scotland. It is part of the Church of Scotland and (along with Yester Church Saltoun Parish Church) serves the parish of Yester, Bolton and Saltoun.

Lennoxlove House is a historic house set in woodlands half a mile south of Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. The house comprises a 15th-century tower, originally known as Lethington Castle, and has been extended several times, principally in the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The house is protected as a category A listed building, and is described by Historic Scotland as "one of Scotland's most ancient and notable houses." The wooded estate is included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.It is now the seat of the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon.

East Lothian (; Scots: East Lowden; Scottish Gaelic: Lodainn an Ear) is a constituency in Scotland which returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. The seat is represented by Kenny MacAskill of the Alba Party who was elected as an SNP MP at the 2019 general election, where he unseated the sitting Labour incumbent, Martin Whitfield with a majority of 3,886 votes. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be formally renamed Lothian East, to be first contested at the next general election.

Bolton is a hamlet and the third smallest parish in East Lothian, Scotland. It lies approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Haddington and 20 miles (32 km) east of Edinburgh, and is an entirely agricultural parish, 6 miles (9.7 km) long by about 1.25 miles (2.01 km) wide. The most notable buildings in the hamlet are the Parish Church, an 18th-century dovecote or "doo'cot" and the former Bolton Primary School, which now serves as the village hall.

Bara, anciently spelt Baro, is an agricultural parish in East Lothian, Scotland, which adjoins the parish of Garvald to the east, and Lauder across the Lammermuir Hills. It is south-west of Haddington. About 1340, Robert de Lawder, Justiciary, was a witness, with James Lord Douglas, Robert de Keith, Henry St.Clair, Alexander de Seaton, all knights, plus the "Lord" William, Rector of the parish of Morham, East Lothian, to a charter of Euphemia, the widow of Sir John Giffard, Lord of Yester, relating to the tenement of land of 'Barow'. This was once a separate community and parish, with its own church and graveyard, which stood in a corner of Linplum farm – to this day called kirk field. In 1743, part of the roof of the ancient church collapsed. The community was in some decline and the Presbytery decided not to repair the church but to conjoin the parish with adjoining Garvald, notwithstanding the fact that Morham church was slightly closer. The Glebe was on the north side of the road leading to Garvald and the manse stood where, in 1890, the Bara blacksmith's premises stood. The superiority of the parish was long in the hands of the Hays of Yester family and their cadets, and following the demise of Bara Kirk, Robert Hay, of Bara & Linplum, enclosed the churchyard with a wall and planted it with trees and shrubs. Some of the church ruins are extant and just a few of the original headstones in the totally overgrown graveyard. Some of the older headstones were readable in the 19th century and half a dozen appear in John Martine's book. Others were transcribed in the 1950s. The community has today all but disappeared with the demise of agricultural labour, although numerous farms still exist: Carfrae, Duncanlaw, Bara, Linplum, Snawdon, Little Newton, Quarryford, Newlands, Castlemains, Danskin, Brokside, and East & West Hopes.