Biel is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in East Lothian

East Lothian

East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, UK, to the south of Dunbar

Dunbar

Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....

, off the B6370 road. It is situated on the Biel Estate, close to Biel House

Biel House

Biel House is a historic house on the Biel Estate near Stenton, East Lothian, Scotland, UK.-House:The present Biel House dates from the 16th century, is statutorily listed, and is a castellated three storey building. It was formerly owned by the Earls of Belhaven...

.

Placename

The word 'biel', 'beil' or 'bel' means "shelter", as in Belton

Belton

Belton may refer to:* Belton, Texas* Belton, South Carolina* Belton, Missouri* Belton, Montana, known today as West Glacier, Montana* Belton, Ontario* Belton, North Lincolnshire* Belton, Lincolnshire** Belton House* Belton, Leicestershire...

, Belhaven, Bilsdean

Bilsdean

Bilsdean is a village between Thorntonloch and Cockburnspath on the East Lothian coast of Scotland.The place-name derives from Biel, East Lothian, also Biel House, Biel Water, Belhaven, and Belhaven Bay.-External links:****...

, or as in Robert Lauder of Beilmouth

Robert Lauder of Beilmouth

Sir Robert Lauder of Beilmouth, Knt., was an armiger, lawyer and Clerk of Exchequer in Scotland. In 1683 he was made a Justice of the Peace for Haddingtonshire. As Robert Lauder of Belhaven he was in the old Scottish parliament for Haddington in 1685, and, as Sir Robert Lauder of Beilmouth, in 1704...

.

History

Archaeologists from Glasgow University found the remains of a small farmstead over 2000 years old, possibly with a palisade

Palisade

A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...

 surrounding a roundhouse

Roundhouse

A roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...

.

The Biel estate was originally owned by the Earls of Dunbar

Earl of Dunbar

The title Earl of Dunbar, also called Earl of Lothian or Earl of March, was the head of a comital lordship in south-eastern Scotland between the early 12th century and the early 15th century. The first man to use the title of Earl in this earldom was Gospatric II, Earl of Lothian, son of Gospatric,...

, then by Robert Lauder of The Bass

Robert Lauder of The Bass

Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass, was a Scottish knight, armiger, and Governor of the Castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was also a member of the old Scottish Parliament...

. Sir James Hamilton, Sheriff of Lanark

Lanark

Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....

, bought Biel in 1641.

William Hamilton Nisbet succeeded to the Biel lands and made Biel House

Biel House

Biel House is a historic house on the Biel Estate near Stenton, East Lothian, Scotland, UK.-House:The present Biel House dates from the 16th century, is statutorily listed, and is a castellated three storey building. It was formerly owned by the Earls of Belhaven...

 his residence. It is a 12th century tower house

Tower house

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...

, off the B6370, and a member of the Historic Houses Association

Historic Houses Association

The Historic Houses Association, a not for profit organsiation, represents 1,500 privately owned historic country houses, castles and gardens throughout the UK. These are listed buildings or registered gardens, usually Grade I or II* and often outstanding....

.

Biel House

The present Biel House is a 16th century three-storey listed building, formerly owned by the Earls of Belhaven. William Atkinson extended it in 1814-1818, and in the early twentieth century, further interior alterations were made by R.R.Anderson.
The grounds include a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

, rock garden

Rock Garden

The Rock Garden or Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a Sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, also known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden after its founder Nek Chand, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today it is spread over an area of forty-acres , it is...

, doocot, summerhouse

Summer house

A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places...

, gatepiers, deer park

Medieval deer park

A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...

, woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

, arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

, kitchen garden

Kitchen garden

The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden - the ornamental plants and lawn areas...

, glasshouses

Glasshouses

Glasshouses is a small village in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, England. It lies about 1 mile south east of Pateley Bridge on the east side of Nidderdale and has a recently rebuilt river bridge across the river Nidd....

.

Biel Water (Biel Burn)

The Biel Water

Biel Water

The Biel Water is a river running through the Biel Estate in Biel, East Lothian.It runs for 4.5 kilometres from the Luggate Burn and the Whittinghame Water, via Stenton, Biel House, West Barns, and finally to Belhaven Bay with its rather unusual bridge....

, locally known as the Biel Burn, flows through the Biel Estate, and Biel Mill is situated in a woodland.

The Biel Burn Flood of 1948 is still remembered by local residents. The latest flooding incident occurred in 2007.