Bonnington House is a 19th-century country house near Wilkieston. The house was built in 1622, and was the home of the Foulis Baronets of Colinton. Sir James Foulis, 2nd Baronet, served as Lord Justice Clerk from 1684 to 1688, taking the title Lord Colinton. Bonnington later passed to the Wilkies of Ormiston.
The house passed from the Scott family to Hugh Cunningham, Lord Provost of Edinburgh around 1702. It is said to have been doubled in size c.1720. In 1720 the house was owned by Hugh's son, Alexander Cunningham.
In 1858 the house was completely remodelled in a Jacobean style. The house and its 100-acre (40 ha) estate was bought by the present owners in 1999, and in 2001 the house was refurbished by Lee Boyd Architects. Two new wings were designed by Benjamin Tindall Architects, granted planning consent in 2010 and completed in 2015. The grounds of the house have been developed as a sculpture park, now open to the public as Jupiter Artland.
References:Towering 52 meters above the sea, Bengtskär lighthouse is the tallest one in Scandinavia. The building started in in 1905 after the shipwreck of S/S Helsingfors and was completed in 1906. The lighthouse was designed by architect Florentin Granholm. On December a special petrol lantern, designed and built in Paris, was brought to Bengtskär and installed atop the tower.
German fleet bombarded Bengstkär in the First World War in 1914. Since the Gulf of Finland was heavily mined, it was not until 1919 that the surrounding seas were declared safe for shipping, that the light was lit again.
After the war the military value of Bengtskär increased as part of the defence system of independent Finland. In Second World War (1941) Soviet Union made a suprise attack to island. After a bloody battle, the small Finnish garrison emerged victorious. Intermittent repairs to the facility continued during the post-war period.